The Role of Self-Efficacy in the Thesis-Writing Experiences of Undergraduate Honors Students

Writing a thesis is often the culminating experience for undergraduate students enrolled in university honors programs in the United States. Because writing a thesis is one of the most difficult academic tasks that an undergraduate student may undertake, it requires a high level of self-efficacy, or belief in one’s capabilities to achieve certain results. However, the factors that contribute to students’ efficacy expectations when writing a thesis are not fully understood. This qualitative study followed 11 honors students over the course of several months in order to understand their experiences as they completed their theses. Data was gathered through a series of four questionnaires and two interviews. Analysis revealed six themes: previous research experiences, emotions, project timelines, structure, advisors, and support networks. These themes suggest that students’ abilities to manage their emotions and employ self-regulatory strategies play a critical role in their self-assessments of efficacy during work on challenging academic tasks, findings which have implications for a variety of academic programs and campus support services. In addition, this study reveals that faculty mentoring of undergraduate students may require greater attention to cultivating emotional awareness and regulation than does the mentoring of graduate students.

Virtually the same? Evaluating the effectiveness of remote undergraduate research experiences

In-person undergraduate research experiences (UREs) promote students' integration into careers in life science research. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted institutions hosting summer URE programs to offer them remotely, raising questions about whether undergraduates who participate in remote research can experience scientific integration. To address this, we investigated indicators of scientific integration for students who participated in remote life science URE programs in summer 2020. We found that these students experienced gains in their scientific self-efficacy and scientific identity similar to results reported for in-person UREs. We also found that these students perceived high benefits and low costs of doing research at the outset of their programs, and their perceptions did not change despite the remote circumstances. Yet, their perceptions differed by program, indicating that programs differentially affected students' perceptions of the costs of doing research. Finally, we observed that students with prior research experience made greater gains in self-efficacy and identity, as well as in their perceptions of the alignment of their values with those of the scientific community, in comparison to students with no prior research experience. This finding suggests that additional programming may be needed for undergraduates with no prior experience to benefit from remote research.

Mentoring High-Impact Undergraduate Research Experiences

This article illustrates the Ten Salient Practices of Undergraduate Research Mentors with examples for English studies. The authors include both one-to-one and research-team examples, recognizing that although much English scholarship is solitary, peers and near peers play key roles in high-quality, mentored undergraduate research experiences.

The Trajectory of an Undergraduate Researcher

This article focuses on the progress of an undergraduate English major on the scholarship continuum outlined by Laurie Grobman (2009). The student engaged in authentic research in a research methods course for English majors, a class that also meets a university requirement of “quantitative intensive,” and she completed two research projects of note. Her journey has implications and significance for faculty in designing undergraduate research experiences.

Undergraduate Research and the Enrollment Crisis in English Literature

Declines in undergraduate enrollments in English literature are well documented, and departments need to develop a coherent set of productive, practical responses to enrollment pressures. Drawing on studies of undergraduate research in STEM disciplines, this article explores how undergraduate research experiences in English literature can be envisioned not as unique, one-on-one experiences for motivated and interested students but as a curricular intervention that spans the undergraduate academic experience, fosters scholarly identity, and promotes inclusivity in scholarly training. Rather than functioning “by arrangement,” undergraduate research in English should be a coordinated enterprise that is established as an expectation for incoming students and a feature of every level of the major.

The Role of the Graduate Student in Inclusive Undergraduate Research Experiences

The authors present a lab-based research model that engages graduate students in undergraduate research mentorship positions that are mutually beneficial for graduate students, undergraduates, and faculty. They show how this model can be scaled up and adapted across the range of English disciplines. The authors share examples of the different types of research that they have engaged in for linguistics, literary archival studies, creative writing, and writing pedagogy. These examples illustrate how undergraduate research mentorship can prepare graduate students to teach and mentor students using effective methods in various institutional contexts.

The Reactions of Adolescents, Parents and Clinicians to Participating in Qualitative Research Interviews Regarding Adolescents Bereaved by Suicide and Other Traumatic Death

There are concerns that involving adolescents bereaved by suicide and other traumatic death in research may cause distress and harm. However, no study has investigated such bereaved adolescents’ research experiences. In addition, no study has looked at the experiences of parents and clinicians as participants in adolescent suicide and traumatic death bereavement research. This study aimed to explore the short-term impact of research participation experienced by adolescents, parents, and clinicians. A total of 61 participants (adolescents, n = 17; parents, n = 12; clinicians, n = 32) filled out a short survey within two weeks of having taken part in a qualitative interview study. Data were analyzed descriptively. Most participants had experienced no distress while participating and no negative effects of participating; rather, participation was experienced as helpful for them and they would highly recommend participating in a study like this to others. A few adolescents and parents reported some distress, related to anxiety about participation and the unpleasantness of grief memories. The study clearly indicates that bereaved adolescents, parents and clinicians can safely participate in research interviews regarding their experiences of grief and help after suicide, generally valuing the opportunity to share their experience. To prevent and mitigate potential distress, training of research staff and implementation of appropriate participant distress protocols are imperative. Future studies could include longitudinal follow-up of participants to assess any longer-term consequences.

Guiding Principles in The Study of Neighborhoods as a Basis for the city Formation and Its Development "Homs city as a case of study": المبادئ التوجيهية في دراسة المجاورات السكنية كأساس لتشكيل المدينة وتطوّرها "مدينة حمص كحالة دراسية"

The city has grown and developed with time over several eras, and at each stage different concepts were defined in city planning, such as the residential neighborhood theory that Berry identified and considered it as the smallest planning unit that contributes to the formation of the city. The concepts of residential neighborhood have developed by a number of planners and have social, economic and urban dimensions. It is essential that it cannot be ignored when developing any plan for neighborhoods or cities, but these dimensions have differed between countries and planners, and it was necessary to set some guidelines in their planning as a primary goal to show their role in the formation of cities as the smallest component in the city formation in order to avoid the many problems In the processes of urban, population and economic development in general. From this logic, the research dealt with a theoretical and analytical study of the theoretical concepts of residential neighborhoods for some planners and identifying the elements of residential neighborhoods and their basic components in order to reach an analytical approach to assess residential neighborhoods and determine the guidelines for their study. Then, some international, Arab and local experiences were studied according to those principles in order to draw some important results, and project them to the city of Homs to demonstrate the importance and role of residential neighborhoods as a basis for the formation and development of residential neighborhoods and cities. The guidelines necessary to be available in the study of residential neighborhoods were deduced, and by conducting a comparative approach between the research experiences, it was noted that the environmental and regional dimension was provided in most by 100%, as well as the availability of the appropriate radius by 90%, except that there are bicycles and pedestrians paths and the movement of people with special needs was 10% which needs to be developed and improved. The research recommends adoption the concluded guidelines because they include all urban and planning aspects and meet the resident social and economic needs and thus contribute to the city formation (urban, economic and social). The research also recommends following a basic idea in the study of the neighborhood so that it achieves the possibility of dividing it into residential groups that contain service centers according to radii suitable for the movement of the population on foot (between 400- 500 m) with securing an area for regional or city services, and attention to sustainability and the provision of the green element. And work to limit the movement of pedestrians according to special paths, taking into account the movement of people with special needs, and securing the necessary site coordination elements.