Student attitudes toward research in an undergraduate social science research methods course

ABSTRACT

This study used a mixed-methods longitudinal design to investigate change in students’ understanding, attitudes, anxiety, perceptions of relevance, and disinterest in a required social science undergraduate research methods course across a semester. Participants were 78 undergraduates (94% women, 6% men; 92% white non-Hispanic/Latinx, M age = 25.62, SD = 7.17) at a university in the United States. Results suggest that participant attitudes toward and perceptions of research methods shifted over the course of the semester. Overall, anxiety decreased, while positive attitudes increased. However, initial perceptions and changes in perceptions varied among the three course sections. Over time, students largely recognized the course’s relevance and conveyed positive attitudes toward research and their success in overcoming the challenge of completing the course. Implications for pedagogy include the need for continued assessment of learners, development of students’ self-concept as researchers, teaching of research as a process, and connection to application.

KEYWORDS:

• Research methods instruction
• student attitudes
• student perceptions
• human development and family studies
• undergraduate students

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank undergraduate research assistant, Rylie Esparza, who helped with preliminary qualitative data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This study was approved by the Utah State University Institutional Review Board, Protocols 10441 and 10868.

2. Open-response items are presented here in the order that best facilitates discussion of their results. All open-response items appeared on the same page of the survey, so students may or may not have answered them in the order presented.