At the time of writing, there clearly is more research on undergraduate research than there are explicit efforts at formulating theory. However, any questionnaire designed to assess the effects of undergraduate research also contains theoretical assumptions; while these may not always become explicit, they can nonetheless contribute to theory-building.

This introduction has three parts. The first part will briefly introduce existing models of undergraduate research with theoretical significance, here in the context of the research–teaching nexus. The second part will introduce the four theoretical perspectives that provide the framework(s) for an understanding of undergraduate research in this handbook, namely: higher education policy, psychology, philosophy, and the sociocultural perspective. The third part will briefly discuss how we might develop a theory of undergraduate research.

Undergraduate research education is increasingly important for social work practitioners given the demands for evidence-based practice in social service delivery. Increasingly research competency or new knowledge integration into practice has been identified as a professional responsibility. However, social workers eill often not use or engage in research in their practice settings, tasking social work educators to address this gap through developing innovative undergraduate curricula through which student learners can be engaged. This chapter examines the literature in this area and identifies several proposed engagement strategies such as incorporating research tasks directly into coursework, creating research assistant positions or internships, developing partnerships with community-based agencies to provide applied research opportunities or through case study scenarios and guest speakers, and using ‘real’ research datasets for qualitative/quantitative training. Building mentorship opportunities through research teams including undergraduate and graduate students to facilitate both teaching and learning opportunities in research may also be of benefit.

This chapter explores the depth and range of undergraduate research (UR) in higher education in The Netherlands. It proceeds systematically by charting the range of higher education types and levels in the country, and then focuses in on the cultural and administrative context in which Dutch UR takes place. Thereafter, a survey is conducted into national best practices and UR outcomes. Here, the roots of Dutch UR come to the fore as they emerged in the south-western city of Middelburg under the leadership of Hans Adriaansens, the then Dean of the Roosevelt Academy (now University College Roosevelt), a liberal arts and sciences honours college of Utrecht University. In this chapter it is also explained how UR went on to be taken upacross the country, first through the liberal arts and sciences college network and shortly thereafter by the large research universities. This led to the national student research conference that is organized annually by the Hague-based Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) in conjunction with a business partner, Science Works Ltd, also based in The Hague.

University College London (UCL) is a UK ‘research-intensive’ university with a large undergraduate population. Our aim is to connect world-leading research with world-leading education, and we have achieved this by implementing a Connected Curriculum for Research-Based Education. We focus on the role played by educational developers in joining research with undergraduate education. We discuss different spheres of activity within the Connected Curriculum and show how the process brought different communities together and sparked relationships between fields such as student partnership and quality assurance that had hitherto remained separate. Most significantly, own sense of identity changed as we moved from a more traditional role where our work was almost exclusively with colleagues who taught students, to a more creative position working in partnership with a wider network of colleagues and communities.

Early childhood education has become a prominent field focused on promoting the physical, social-emotional, and intellectual development in young children. Around the world, teacher educators seek ways for candidates to hone key pedagogical practices such as planning, assessment, and reflection inherent in inquiry-based instruction. Undergraduate research embedded in the training of future early childhood educators offers knowledge and skills in solving daily professional problems. Using action research, teacher candidates consult with community leaders, families of young children, and colleagues to implement evidence-based practices toward a common goal. The author shares examples and areas for undergraduate research in early childhood education.

This chapter on Romance phonology reviews several phenomena that can be qualified as typologically rare. Some of the phenomena examined are rarely documented within Romance but are relatively common in other language families, while others are hardly attested in the world’s languages but are present to some degree in Romance. Their relative frequency across languages and geographical distribution have been assessed with the help of three online databases that are publicly available: PHOIBLE, WALS, and the World Phonotactics Database. In addition, the challenges that these phenomena represent for phonological theory are also briefly considered. The topics examined in this chapter concern (i) phoneme inventories; (ii) syllable structure, with a focus on consonantal clusters; (iii) segmental processes involving glides, nasal place neutralization, lenition and fortition, and metathesis, among others; and (iv) issues at the morphology–phonology interface involving suprasegmentals.

In this chapter, we briefly discuss the higher education system in Israel, its various types, and the settings of undergraduate studies at its universities. We then explain why we focus on universities with strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning of undergraduate students. Finally, we explore several large-scale undergraduate research studies conducted at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.

The information-structural categories of focus and topic are examined with respect to the constructions in which they can feature, including fronting, dislocation, subject inversion, and presentational sentences. The role and effects of illocutionary force distinctions (e.g., declarative, interrogative, exclamative) and different predication types (thetic vs non-thetic predications) are also taken into consideration. Despite the many similarities, (micro)variation in this area proves quite considerable. In relation to Romance comparative data, this chapter shows that this variation can be accounted for by pragmatic-discourse factors and structural licensing principles that are indeed related to information structure.

The linking of teaching and research is a key element of the modern university. It requires curricular changes such as the redesign of courses and/or the integration of research-based student activities into the curriculum. In recent decades, various approaches to connect research to teaching and learning have been initiated. The Zurich Framework is a conceptual model for structuring research-oriented study programs that is much discussed in German-speaking countries. The Framework links teaching and research didactically on three levels: the level of single courses, the level of degree programs, and finally the institutional level. In particular, the framework includes a model for course-based undergraduate research.

This chapter reviews the role played by linguistic evidence from the Romance languages in shaping contemporary semantic research. The discussion focuses on a selection of phenomena that have important ramifications for the form–meaning mapping (presupposition, anaphora, (in)definiteness, deixis, tense, negation). For each phenomenon some particularly remarkable cases are discussed, for which research into Romance languages has substantially contributed to theoretical models and analytical advances in the field of semantics. At the same time, a number of outstanding issues are singled out, for which Romance data may prove decisive in future research. From the non-exhaustive overview provided in this chapter, two conclusions emerge most clearly. First, Romance linguistics has proven to be very influential for semantic research thanks to the wide display of microvariation within the Romance family, which represents an ideal testing ground for theories of the form–meaning interface. Second, the diachronic depth that can be reached in examining Romance data is instrumental in opening up new perspectives for research into the historical development of semantic categories.

In many undergraduate psychology programs, students gain research experience through intentional scaffolded experiences throughout the undergraduate curriculum and in some cases by joining a faculty member’s research program outside of the classroom. In sustained undergraduate research experiences, students benefit from developmentally appropriate mentoring as they gradually develop and master skills, an approach often compared to an apprenticeship model. Many psychology faculty use evidence-based mentoring practices, such as the Salient Practices Framework, which was developed by an international, multi-institutional research team. Examples include setting clear and incremental expectations and supporting students as they transfer more basic skills learned in the classroom to conducting community or field-based research. There are creative and evidence-based ways to improve access for all students by being more intentional about embedding research experiences in the psychology curricula, or by further considering ways to recruit and retain UR students from historically underserved groups.

The first part of the chapter provides an overview of assessment as an integral element of undergraduate research’s continued success and sustainability. Building from this introduction, the remainder of the chapter explains the EvaluateUR method, a proven approach to assessing the skills and competencies of undergraduate research students and for improving student learning. The EvaluateUR method documents student growth in academic and workplace-related knowledge and skills and fosters meaningful student–mentor dialog to strengthen students’ awareness of their academic strengths and weaknesses. The chapter includes a summary of the findings from an independent evaluation of the method and concludes with remarks about how the method is being adapted to support the assessment of course-based undergraduate research experiences and students competing in remotely operated underwater vehicle competitions.

English as a university subject covers a very wide range of topics, with variation around the world both in scope and in how programmes are organized. Work in English is often more or less formally divided into sub-disciplines. In the UK, language, literature, and creative writing are the three most common subdivisions. In Europe, different divisions are made and students on English programmes often look at two or more of these areas. In the USA, divisions are stronger, with very little work in universities that combines or connects linguistic and literary perspectives. This chapter focuses on undergraduate research on language, literature and creative writing, without presupposing that this encompasses all that can be covered by English or that these areas should be sharply distinguished. It highlights higher education in the UK, partly because there is little data on international practice and anecdotal evidence often relates to particular institutions.

Undergraduate research differs by country, being embedded in distinct national systems of higher education. These systems differ structurally and, culturally, are lived differently. Part IV is devoted to the implementation of undergraduate research around the world, providing summaries from 27 countries. The structure of Part IV is aligned with geographic regions: The Americas; Africa & the Middle East; Asia & Oceania; and Europe. One trend we see worldwide is that the development of undergraduate research is being linked to the federation and establishment of excellent research at universities.

Political science (PSCI) is housed in the social sciences, which together “examine what it means to be a social being, ranging from the minutiae of human behavior … to large scale social movements, demographics, economics and politics” (European Science Foundation, 2016). Undergraduate research (UR) in PSCI, whether using quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods, helps students develop critical thinking skills and tools, whereby they can apply what they learn in class to the real world, rather than just memorizing facts and figures that are forgotten after they take each semester exam.