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

这个项目是一项为期两年的工程路径研究，它是NSF资助的工程教育促进中心(CAEE)学术路径研究(APS)的研究成果的延伸。APS对工科本科生的学习经历及其职场过渡进行了一系列纵向和横向研究。在这个项目中，正在研究早期职业专业人员(ECP)的经验，以便更好地了解教育机构和雇主可以做些什么，以促进从工程专业学生向实践工程专业人员的过渡。更具体地说，该项目正在进行一项关于两个研究问题的混合方法研究：(1)哪些因素或因素组合促进了ECPs向职业文化的转变，以及他们对特定职业生涯的概念和准备？(2)影响ECPs专业发展的因素如何，以及在多大程度上有助于他们未来的职业生涯？这项研究的基础是社会认知职业理论，该理论已被证明是探索工程职业生涯持续性的有用框架。该项目包括一项由独立评估员协调的严格评价计划，以监测项目的进展情况，并研究关于整合APS结果和协作影响的评价研究问题。

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.