Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to cordially invite you to participate in the conference “focus URE” at the University of Hohenheim from June 5 to 7, 2019! The University of Hohenheim is home to the award-winning Humboldt reloaded project which aims to educate undergraduate students in, and get them enthusiastic about scientific research. With this expertise we feel confident to organize this conference and want to bring scientists from a variety of disciplines and countries working on Underpinnings, Requirements and Effects of URE together. The aim of this conference is to advance the concept and implementation of URE by applying

(1) Knowledge of basic principles of the learning process;

(2) Experiences with particular formats of URE;

(3) Results from URE impact studies.

Apart from the main conference program which includes three keynote lectures addressing the meeting sessions U, R and E of undergraduate research and up to 15 lectures and some posters, we have plans for some discussion. Moreover, we want to summarize our findings in a memorandum, build up step by step during the conference, about how to set up undergraduate research, why and when for which aims. The conference venue is the historic Hohenheim Palace which is surrounded by the beautiful botanical and exotic garden. We are looking forward to welcome you to the “focus URE” conference in Hohenheim in 2019!

What do we mean, when we think about

U – Underpinnings

Underpinnings of URE

This session will discuss neurophysiological, psychological and pedagogical principles of learning and their significance for the implementation of URE formats.

Recording and analyzing of brain activities has furthered our understanding of neurophysiological principles, and at the same time revealed the cognitive limitations of the learning process. Concurrently, empirical studies illuminate environmental, structural, emotional and social settings that are best suited for retaining and storing new information in the brain. Meta-analyses underline the critical roles that teacher personalities, social interactions, quality and quantity of communication and support play in learning processes.

How does learning occur and what can we conclude for URE? What can we deduce from pedagogical and psychological theories of learning for a successful implementation of URE? How important are cognitions, motivations, and affects for succeeding learning processes? Which neurophysiological processes during learning favor learning in the URE format, which hamper learning by URE?  How can we apply this knowledge for URE? What – if any – are do’s and dont‘s in URE from the pedagogical, psychological, and neurophysiological perspectives? Which teaching competences qualify academics particularly to successfully mentor students in URE?

We invite contributions addressing these questions, in particular from educational and cognitive psychology, educational neuroscience, pedagogical and social sciences, focusing on the role of learners, teachers or both. The relevance and implications of research data for the design and realization of URE should be addressed and discussed.

R – Requirements

Requirements for learning through research in URE

This session will present international URE cases and discuss how URE works. A focus will be on parameters ensuring that pre-set aims are actually achieved.

We are primarily interested in non-compulsory URE formats, be they course-based or not, from all disciplines. Formats should provide at least some degree of freedom for students to choose their research subject or topic. These restrictions have been chosen in order to discuss URE formats comparable to Humboldt reloaded, which the organizers consider ideally suited to reach overarching URE goals such as an understanding of the scientific process, self-aware reflection, the ability to reason, and frustration tolerance. Formats may be student-, lecturer- or faculty-driven. There may be an obligatory output of project results (scientific article, abstract, poster, presentation) and students may or may not receive credits that should, however, not be marked. Interdisciplinarity is a matter of particular interest.

What does URE require? What are the learning goals, requirements, challenges, and achievements of particular disciplinary and interdisciplinary formats of URE? What are the intended and non-intended outcomes of these formats? Which lessons learned on succeeding and hampering factors for disciplinary and interdisciplinary URE can we deduce from these practical experiences? What are the recommendations for successful URE, understood as strengthening the student´s research competences? What additional challenges arise in interdisciplinary formats and how can they be met?

We invite contributions from URE projects that meet the outlined restrictions in the broad sense, and highly encourage the presentation of challenges and lessons learned from practical implementations of both disciplinary and interdisciplinary URE.

E – Effects

Effects of URE

This session will discuss how URE formats impact on student competencies, immediately and in the long term. A focus will be on methods of assessment and selection of significant parameters, including unintended side effects.

URE underpinnings and requirements impact on objectives in a number of ways. The assessment of positive and negative effects of learning-through-research on student competencies, however, is intrinsically difficult. While studies frequently focus on self-assessments, a comprehensive approach to measuring causes and effects of URE is still missing. The definition and identification of dependent and independent variables within the conceptualization phase of impact studies is of vital importance, in order to draw conclusions for future implementation of URE formats in higher education. Underlying concepts and impact relationships of variables help assessing expectations towards learning-through-research.

What are the effects of URE and how to measure them? How can we gain solid empirical insights on the effects of URE? What type of impact models is suitable for identifying strengths and weaknesses of URE? Which type of research competences are we measuring? What are appropriate procedures of data acquisition? What kind of data should be collected at what time points during the process? Which positive and – if so – negative effects arise during URE?

We invite contributions of all kinds of methodological approaches beyond self-assessment, as these, together with the disclosure of beneficial conditions, bear high significance for the successful implementation of URE formats. We particularly welcome contributions that follow qualitative ways of data acquisition such as participating observations and in-depth cross-case analyses.