About The Study

The purpose of the research is to:

1. Examine the relationships among student Research Assistants’ (RA) everyday experiences and their perceptions of research and research careers.
2. Examine the relationship between faculty beliefs about science and their mentoring behaviors, as well as their students’ experiences in research.

Our goal is to determine how certain kinds of lab-related experiences may influence students’ motivation and performance in their field of study.

We collect data across different waves of this project.

In one part of our study, we ask faculty participants to complete an interview (45-60 min) via zoom. In the interview, you will be asked to describe your research, what qualities you think make for successful (or unsuccessful) students in research, and what you do to train students in your lab.

In another part of our study, we ask different faculty participants to complete an interview (15-20 min) either in person or via zoom, along with an online survey (5-10 min.) now and a follow-up questionnaire each academic semester (or quarter) about your research lab and student Research Assistants (RAs). In the interview and questionnaires, you will be asked to describe your research and daily lab tasks, including typical student RA duties, as well as your attitudes about research and perceptions of your students. We are also asking that you share your official lab communications with our research team by copying our research team on lab email announcements, for example.

For the student-focused data collection in this study, you will be asked to complete an online survey now, which takes approximately 25-30 minutes. In this survey, you will be asked to describe duties and experiences from your work as an RA, rate your perceptions of lab work, and attitudes about careers in science. We will also ask you to complete a follow-up questionnaire of similar length each academic semester (or quarter) that you work as a RA.