Null effects of boot camps and short-format training for PhD students in life sciences
Null effects of boot camps and short-format training for PhD students in life sciences
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生命科学博士生靴子训练营和短期培训的影响
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1705783114
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发表时间：
2017-09-12
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Oliva, Michael
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Feldon, David F.;Jeong, Soojeong;Oliva, Michael
许多博士项目包括新兵训练营和夏季桥牌项目，以加速博士生研究技能的发展和适应各自学科的文化。这些短暂的高强度体验持续时间不超过几周，通常是为了让研究生接触数据分析技术，培养科学写作技能，并更好地将即将入学的学生融入学术社区。然而，之前还没有研究直接衡量参加这类项目的博士生的结果，并将它们与没有参与的学生的结果进行比较。同样，以前没有研究使用纵向设计来评估随时间推移的这些结果。我们在这里表明，参加这样的项目与我们样本中的学生在技能发展、融入学术界或学术生产力方面的可察觉好处无关。我们分析了来自53个美国机构的294名生命科学博士生的数据，发现参与者和非参与者在115个变量上的结果没有统计学上的显著差异。这些结果与之前的研究形成了鲜明对比，这些研究将新兵训练营作为基于参与者满意度和感知价值的有效干预措施。许多大学和政府机构(例如，国家卫生研究院和国家科学基金会)在新兵训练营和夏季桥牌活动中投入大量资源，希望更好地支持科学劳动力的发展。我们的研究结果没有向学生揭示任何可衡量的好处，这表明将有限的资源分配给具有更强经验基础的替代策略值得考虑。
Many PhD programs incorporate boot camps and summer bridge programs to accelerate the development of doctoral students' research skills and acculturation into their respective disciplines. These brief, high-intensity experiences span no more than several weeks and are typically designed to expose graduate students to data analysis techniques, to develop scientific writing skills, and to better embed incoming students into the scholarly community. However, there is no previous study that directly measures the outcomes of PhD students who participate in such programs and compares them to the outcomes of students who did not participate. Likewise, no previous study has used a longitudinal design to assess these outcomes over time. Here we show that participation in such programs is not associated with detectable benefits related to skill development, socialization into the academic community, or scholarly productivity for students in our sample. Analyzing data from 294 PhD students in the life sciences from 53 US institutions, we found no statistically significant differences in outcomes between participants and nonparticipants across 115 variables. These results stand in contrast to prior studies presenting boot camps as effective interventions based on participant satisfaction and perceived value. Many universities and government agencies (e.g., National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation) invest substantial resources in boot camp and summer bridge activities in the hopes of better supporting scientific workforce development. Our findings do not reveal any measurable benefits to students, indicating that an allocation of limited resources to alternative strategies with stronger empirical foundations warrants consideration.