Assessing the impact of curriculum on open and transparent research practices
Over the past decade, in response to the so-called “replication crisis”, psychology researchers have begun adopting practices that promote openness and transparency. Currently, these emerging best practices are not consistently represented in the teaching of Psychology research methods at UNCC. Moreover, research in pedagogy has not systematically examined whether introducing undergraduates to open science practices improves their conceptual understanding of research methods. In the proposed work, we seek to evaluate the impact of integrating open science practices into the curriculum of PSYC2103: Research Methods II (RM2). We will implement this integration through: (i) an Open Science module that situates questionable research practices in the current norms of science and identifies possible solutions, and (ii) practical tools for performing open and robust research, mapped on traditional RM2 components (e.g., labs will use open datasets and open-source statistical platforms; research proposals will be pre-registered on the Open Science Framework). We will develop and validate an Open Science Concept Inventory (OSCI) (Studies 1 & 2) to evaluate the Open Science module, and additional assessments to evaluate the practical tools. Evaluation of the new materials will take place over two implementation rounds (Study 3 - Fall 2019; Study 4 - Spring 2020). All material developed will be shared through OSF and as a Canvas course that can be adopted by other instructors. By providing validated tools that are easily integrated into existing curricula, we aim to facilitate the adoption of open science practices and to provide undergraduates the conceptual foundations for conducting robust and transparent research.