Undergraduate Engineering Students' Development of a Researcher Identity

• In Event: 72.036 - New Perspectives on College Student Identity

Abstract

Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to increase retention, help students clarify career goals, and increase understanding of how research is done. There are a limited number of studies investigating students’ identity development and integration into research communities of practice. Identity development and integration into communities of practice have been shown to be relevant to student success in both engineering and physics. The purpose of this work is to investigate how undergraduate engineering students see themselves as researchers. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze students’ responses to open-ended survey questions. This analysis revealed that students see themselves as researchers because of personal character traits, interest in research, competence in completing research activities, and experience with doing research.

Authors

• Courtney June Faber, The College of New Jersey

• Lisa Benson, Clemson University