The influence of science students’ research attitudes on their intentions to use research in their future professional practice.

Abstract

Research intensive universities educate their students to provide them with the necessary qualifications for careers as professionals in academia and/or for a chosen professional field. Given the objectives of promoting research, research intensive universities place great value in developing curricula and programs that engage student in research activities to cultivate an awareness of research careers and to train students for employment requiring research skills. However, Griffeon (2018) suggests that research competencies are only useful as long as the student has the intention to use them in their future practice. Thus far, there have been few studies that have examined how students’ perceptions of research relate to their intent to apply research competencies in their future profession. The purpose of this study is to describe the relationships between undergraduate science students’ intention to use their research competencies in their future professional practice and their perceptions and attitudes towards research. To study this relationship, a Research Attitudes in Science Education Questionnaire was administered to the undergraduate science student of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Ottawa. The findings show that student’ intentions to use research in their future professional practice correlates highly with their perceptions of and attitudes toward research, while research activities and research context have less of an effect. To increase the functionality of research education and pedagogies into curricula, students’ research attitudes should be considered