The Attitudes of First-Year Graduate Students Towards Research: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Graduate students must have research skills, so some universities conduct research-based learning. However, students’ attitudes toward research have never been measured. The purpose of this study was to explore graduate students’ attitudes toward research. This study used a cross-sectional survey design. Attitudes toward research can have an impact on self-confidence, learning motivation, and academic achievement. Graduate students from the Biology Department took part in an online survey about their attitudes toward research using Google Forms. The sample consisted of 83 graduate students from various universities in Indonesia. An attitude toward the research questionnaire was used, with six categories: research usefulness for the profession, research anxiety, positive attitude toward research, the relevance of research to life, research difficulties, and research complexity. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics where frequency and percentage were calculated for categorical variables. The study results show that most students like research (81.93%) and think it will be beneficial to their lives and careers (93.98%), but they also believe that research is complex (75.9%) and has some flaws (59.04%). The implication of this research is to make students aware of the usefulness of research and the challenges they face when conducting research. The curriculum for research methodology courses needs to be improved to shift the perception of the difficulty and complexity of research.