DOCUMENT RESUME CG 030 414 ED 446 303 AUTHOR Bethea, James; Curtis, Gregg; Edwards, Yolanda V.; Portman, Tarrell A.; Sheu, Hung-Bin; Vazquez-Ramos, Robinson; Yoon, Eunju Enhancing Research Training for Counseling Students: A TITLE Research Team Approach. PUB DATE 2000-00-00 NOTE 31p. Descriptive (141) Reports PUB TYPE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Cooperation; *Counselor Training; *Graduate Students; Higher DESCRIPTORS Education; Mentors; Program Development; *Research Opportunities; Teacher Student Relationship *University of Iowa IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT Graduate students in counselor education programs are required to take a minimal number of research courses during their tenure as students. The learning experiences from courses or from working on an individual basis with or without the guidance of a research mentor can vary in quality and intensity. The opportunity for graduate students to participate on a research team and work collaboratively on research projects can be a positive professional and personal growth opportunity. This article discusses the development of such a program called the Diverse Research Team at the University of Iowa. Caucasians, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian international students were included. The objectives of the Diverse Research Team (DRT) were to: promote and instill the basic knowledge and skills about research, create a unique team experience, and contribute to the personal development and professional identity of graduate students. Although the benefits of the program were far reaching, some limitations to providing a research team experience were noted, especially those concerning the funding of projects and travel expenses for presentations. (Contains 14 references.) (JDM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Enhancing Research Training 1 Running head: RESEARCH TEAMING EXPERIENCE Enhancing Research Training for Counseling Students: A Research Team Approach (Authors are in alphabetic order.) James Bethea Gregg Curtis Yolanda V. Edwards Tarrell A. Portman Hung-Bin Sheu Robinson Vazquez-Ramos Eunju Yoon U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION The University of Iowa Office of Educational Research and Improvement "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION HAS BEEN GRANTED BY MATERI CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES document do not necessarily represent 2 official OERI position or policy. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." _ _ BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 Enhancing Research Training Abstract minimal Graduate students in counselor education programs are required to take a learning number of research courses during their tenure as students. However, the without experiences from regular classes or from working on an individual basis with or graduate the guidance of a research mentor can be very dispersed. The opportunity for collaboratively is students to participate on a research team and work on research projects opportunity. This article will discuss the development a professional and personal growth of a research team of counseling students at the University of Iowa, as well as a preliminary evaluation of the thematic outcomes of this research training method. This research training for counseling students. can provide implications for enhancing 3 Enhancing Research Training 3 and implementing The purpose of this paper is to introduce the process of creating learning experiences of team members. The research a research team and sharing the members from four major racial team from a large Mid-western university consists of and Asian international students. Their groups: Caucasian, African American, Latino, native languages are English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Korean. With a masters or bachelor's degree, all members are graduate students in Counselor Education program, Before Rehabilitation Counselor Education program, or School Counseling program. teacher, participating in the research team, team members had served as the high school Overall, this faculty or counselor at college setting, or consultant at business setting. vocational, and research team comprises of members with variously ethnic, educational, research backgrounds in different, but relative disciplines. There are some rules guiding the research team's operation. First of all, as a relatively closed group, the research team was originally founded by a research mentor member will and five members with similar research interests. Whether to accept a new of be decided based on the contribution the person can make to the team and consensus topics and put all previous members. Second, every member can bring up new research them under team discussions. Once the research idea or conference project was approved, all members will work on them cooperatively. Third, the ownership of an original research idea and the extent of contribution to this project will be used to decide authorship. By following these rules, the research team has proposed research and conference projects, and worked on them effectively. 4 4 Enhancing Research Training Rationale about For many years, researchers from helping professions have been concerned the issues of how the educational conditions would enhance the graduate students investment in research (Gelso, 1997; Phillips & Ruse11,1994). The conclusion from these (Royalty, studies supports the notion that aspects such as: early involvement in research Reising, Gelso, Mallinckrodt, & Garrett, 1986), actual research projects (Royalty & 1986), 1986), appropriate modeling by faculty (Galassi, Brooks, Stoltz, & Trexler, positive faculty-student relationship (Mallinckrodt, Gelso, & Royalty, 1990), and emphasizing less traditional approaches to research (Galassi et al., 1986), have a positive impact on a student's attitudes, skills, and productivity in research. Betz (1986) argues that calls for modifications in research training represent efforts to increase student's self-efficacy in the areas of research. According to Bandura (1977), self-efficacy is a cognitive theory of behavior acquisition, maintenance, and change that suggests that behavior is function of self-efficacy expectations. Bandura complete a given suggests that if people believe they have the ability to successfully behavior, then they are more likely to engage in that behavior. When we try to observe the relationship between the research training and students' self-efficacy, Bandura (1977) suggested that not only do improvements in research training environment affect actual research competencies, but they also serve to strengthen self-efficacy expectations. Supporting Bandura's statements, Phillips and Rusell (1994) suggest that consistent with self-efficacy theory, early and active involvement in research is equivalent to direct performance accomplishment, the most important factor in determining student's self- efficacy expectations. For that reason, if research self-efficacy proves to be important in 5 Enhancing Research Training 5 training understanding the connections between research productivity and research research environment, then the graduate programs would be better able to design environments to have positive and significant impact on students' productivity. Developing the concept of the research-team approach would be an exceptional strategy students later in their academic to start, because often this initiative helps the graduate Breland, Neil, & and professional careers (Miller, 1979; Stacks & Chalfa, 1981; Steward, the long- Miller (1999). Also, the concept of faculty-led research teams is one response to standing recommendations in the literature for training programs providing graduate proficiency (Gelso, students with experiences, beyond the textbook, that result in research Mallinckrodt, & Judge, 1996; Kahn & Scott, 1997). University For those reasons, we decided to create a DIVERSE Research Team at the of Iowa. The objectives of the Diverse Research Team are the following: Promote and instill in the graduate student member basic knowledge, skills, and attitudes about the research process using a collaborative environment. learn Create a unique team experience in which the graduate student members how to use research tools to contribute to the body of knowledge. Contribute to personal development and professional identity of graduate student members who have committed to the research process in academia. Qualitative Data Analysis Members devised five questions to explore how this research team experience affected their personal and professional development and how these experiences helped enhance research self-efficacy. Each member answered five questions individually based following are the questions: on his/her own experiences and opinion. The 6 Enhancing Research Training 6 professional 1. How has the research teaming experience contributed to your development? 2. How has the research teaming experience affected your personal growth? experience? 3. Compare and contrast regular classroom experience to research teaming confidence, and 4. How is your research self-efficacy in relation with attitude, ability, comfort-level, as a result of RTE? 5. What have been cost and benefits of involvement in research team? of After that, members examined repeatedly emerging themes across the answers six members. These themes are professional/graduate experiences; gaining knowledge/skills; research team environment; opportunities; professional development; conceptual and cost & benefit. Based on these themes, members developed a dynamic diagram illustrating how all these themes work together. Costs Opportunities Key components of our research team experience are opportunities, professional development, personal/professional experiences, DRT involvement, and cost. 7 7 Enhancing Research Training and there are three major The DRT involvement is in the middle of the diagram, soil from which opportunities, components around it. DRT involvement is like fertile experiences are cultivated. professional development, and various personal/professional in this diagram are As the two-way arrows among components indicate, the components involved with the in two-way, reciprocal relationships. For example, more members These experiences research team means members can have more growth experiences. members' lead to more opportunities. These accumulated opportunities enhance be more professional development. All these positive outcomes motivate members to of cost that actively involved with the research team. Of course, there is a component whatever. members have to pay. Examples include time, commitment, extra work, or involvement with the However, members answered that the benefits they gain from the each other research team far surpass the costs. Components of the diagram are related to relationships. Accordingly, as these mutual very closely, and they are in reciprocal development interactions are accumulated over time, members experience qualitative research team as both as a team and an individual. There are developmental stages in the is individual personal/ professional growth. The a group; and, at the same time, there three-dimensional, conceptual diagram is not only a two-dimensional dynamic, but also like a spiral. Personal Experience Five themes emerged within the personal experience category. These themes were Increase 1) Overcoming the fear of research; 2) Increased enthusiasm for research; 3) feelings of self worth and satisfaction; 4) Heightened awareness or sensitivity to research; and 5) A strong sense of connectedness. Each theme is described with supporting qualitative evidence in the following paragraphs. Overcoming the fear of research. The research team participants expressed a decrease in their fear of research through various phrases such as less daunting, less anxious, more comfortable, and lessened fears. These comments become more personal for the reader when the 8 Enhancing Research Training 8 participants' own words are used. One of the participants phrased it this way, "After participating in the DRT [research team] my attitudes toward the research process became better. Now I can participate in the group dynamic without any fear." (1.4) Another team member reported, "My fears regarding research (i.e. statistics, methodology, design, etc.) have lessened through participation on the team" (2.4). Finally, one participant equated the reduction of fear to an increase in specific research tasks. He stated, "It is much easier to read journals, talk with colleagues about research, and become involved in the process when you're not afraid of it" (3.4). Increase enthusiasm for research. This thematic area is best illustrated by a team participant's metaphor: "If I have a broken car; I can read books about its history and how it works, talk with experts about how to fix it, download information like mad from the internet; but until I roll up my sleeves and start turning the wrenches myself, my car is going to sit in the driveway. The counseling program's academic requirements were stellar in allowing me to read the `right' books, talk with the experts, and improve my search abilities. I wouldn't trade my classroom experience for anything, but the research team has let me roll up my sleeves and actually work alongside others. Together we're turning wrenches, getting dirty, making mistakes, and learning from them. Though our car my run roughly at times, the ride is silky smooth." (3.3). This visual imagery of hard work and intense enthusiasm is difficult to find in a traditional pedagogical setting. Another team member expressed an increased level of motivation for research by reporting the following, "Seeing other students in the team involved with research activities makes me feel that research is not something far from me. I am motivated to keep up with research activities." (4.4) This 9 Enhancing Research Training 9 motivation can be tied to attitudinal changes, which may have occurred among the the last research team members as related by this student, "My attitude has changed in motivated to participate in research year being involved in the research team. I have been without having the total team because it allows me to participate in developing research responsibility." (6.4). An awareness of increased enthusiasm for research can be represented by student having an optimism for their own abilities such as in the following, "Although I'm not where I want to be as it relates to being an effective researcher, the DRT experience has provided me with optimism." (2.4). The research participants included in this study expressed an increased recognition, appreciation, excitement for learning and conducting research, and passion for research due to their involvement in research teaming. Increase feelings of self worth and satisfaction. This theme emerged from the personal feelings of research team members related to increase self-worth and overall satisfaction with the research team experience. Team members' comments not only express depth of personal growth but also an increase over time. One such statement follows, "The DRT has allowed me to grow as a person in two dimensions. The first dimension is related to the development of aspects such as friendship, tolerance, attitude toward colleagues from different education backgrounds, self-discipline. The second dimension sense of humor, self-esteem, self-confidence, and is related to the attitudes toward working in a team. Although I am a very shy person, with the dynamic developed with the DRT, I learned how to share and communicate my ideas with others that have the same professional interests as me. Now, I have achieved could say that more self-confidence when I try to communicate with my colleagues. I 10