Milushka Elbulok-Charcape defends her dissertation proposal via WebEx

Milushka Elbulok-Charcape successfully defended her dissertation proposal titled “An Assessment of Undergraduate Students’ Research Literacy” via WebEx. Her work on valid and reliable assessments of research literacy is critical given the lack of attention towards research literacy in the social sciences.

Milushka also recently published an article titled “Reducing Stigma Surrounding Mental Health: Diverse Undergraduate Students Speak Out” as first author in the Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. Read the article by clicking here! This article is a must read for those inside and outside of academia.

Committee Members:
Joan Lucariello (Chair), PhD, Educational Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY
David Rindskopf, PhD, Educational Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Laura Rabin, PhD, Psychology, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Dissertation Proposal Abstract:
Research literacy refers to the knowledge, and application of the knowledge, of statistics and research methods. Research literacy is important because it would enable students to become autonomous lifelong learners and informed research consumers. Compared to other types of literacies (e.g. informational, statistical, scientific, etc.), research literacy in the social sciences has received limited attention in psychological theory and research. As a result, assessments of research literacy have been few or inadequate. For example, limitations in these assessments include placing an emphasis on content knowledge of statistics and research methods and not on the application of such; presenting items in a de-contextualized manner; exploring conceptions or attitudes toward research itself rather than research literacy; or asking respondents to report subjective assessments of their own research literacy. The aim of this research is to assess research literacy in undergraduate students in a reliable and valid way by developing a new assessment of such. This assessment will improve on current assessments by being more comprehensive (tapping diverse domains believed to be part of research literacy) and by using more contextually valid testing formats that also tap knowledge application.

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