Collaborative Research: Engineering Pathways Study: The College-Career Transition Informing Educational Practice

该项目是一项为期两年的工程路径研究，扩展了美国国家科学基金会资助的工程教育促进中心（CAEE）学术路径研究（APS）的研究成果。APS对工科本科学生的学习经历和他们向工作场所的过渡进行了一系列纵向和横向研究。在这个项目中，研究了早期职业专业人员（ECPs）的经验，以便更好地了解教育机构和雇主可以做些什么来促进从工程专业学生到实践工程专业人员的过渡。更具体地说，该项目正在对两个研究问题进行混合方法研究：(1)哪些因素或因素组合促进了ECPs向专业文化的过渡，以及他们对特定职业生涯的概念和准备？(2)影响ecp专业发展的因素如何以及在多大程度上对他们未来的职业生涯产生影响？本研究以社会认知职业理论为基础，该理论已被证明是探索工程职业持续性的有用框架。该项目包括一项严格的评估计划，由一名独立评估人员协调，以监测项目的进展情况，并研究有关APS结果整合和合作影响的评估研究问题。

This project is a two-year engineering pathways study that is extending research findings from the NSF funded Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education's (CAEE's) Academic Pathways Study (APS). The APS conducted a series of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of undergraduate engineering students' learning experiences and their transition to the workplace. In this project, the experiences of early career professionals (ECPs) are being studied in order to better understand what educational institutions and employers can do to facilitate the transition from engineering student to practicing engineering professional. More specifically, the project is conducting a mixed-method study of two research questions: (1) What factors or combinations of factors facilitate the transition of ECPs into a professional culture, and their conceptions of and preparation for their specific professional careers? (2) How, and to what extent do the factors that influence the professional development of ECPs contribute to their future careers? The proposed research is grounded in social cognitive career theory that has been shown to be a useful framework for exploring engineering career persistence. The project includes a rigorous evaluation plan coordinated by an independent evaluator to monitor the progress of the project and to study evaluation research questions about the integration of the APS results and the impact of collaboration.