Cultura científica desde la universidad. Evaluación de la competencia investigativa en estudiantes de Verano Científico

Abstract

The training of young researchers from tertiary education represents a latent concern in educational centers worldwide. In that sense, there are private and public initiatives that encourage scientific culture inside and outside the school curriculum; such as the Summer Science Program in Mexico. This program aims to provide university students with research competence, to incorporate them into the production, creation, and transfer of knowledge through various means: graduate studies, collaboration with solid research groups, among others, so that they contribute to the social, economic, and technological development of their region. Therefore, this work inquires the research competence levels shown in eight generations of undergraduate students in a public university in the Mexican state of Sinaloa that completed the Summer Science Program. In the fieldwork, 227 students participated. They were divided into four knowledge areas: 1) Economic and administrative sciences, 2) Social sciences and humanities, 3) Engineering and Technology, and 4) Biological sciences. As data collecting instruments, interviews and polls were applied, as well as a structured questionnaire composed by 34 items; this report shows the findings of the last one. For the analysis, nonparametric statistics were used, to contrast the competence levels between the different subgroups of students. The results have a descriptive scope, but also allow visualizing a theoretical and empirical spectrum of the needs and strengths of the young researchers training programs