Collaborative Research: Progressions of Skill Development in Biology Doctorates

犹他州州立大学将与弗吉尼亚大学开展一个合作项目，以确定如何培养研究生的研究技能。这项研究的意义在于，研究生教育的目标是培养高技能的劳动力，而不仅仅是一个有资格的人。因此，技能是研究生教育过程和学位在劳动力市场上价值的核心。然而，技能发展是研究生教育的一个知之甚少的方面。 因此，该项目将展示知识和技能，社会化经验和动机之间的相互作用如何随着时间的推移而发挥作用。此外，它将提供新的见解种族/民族不平等的研究生院的轨迹和结果。这是以前关于不平等问题的研究中缺失的一环。了解技能是如何随着时间的推移而发展的，以及它们如何与相关的动机结构相互作用，可以优化培训经验的创造，从而最大限度地提高学生的学习能力。技能发展和减少不平等，通过确定成功的关键预测因素和博士学位进展的关键点。程序. 研究者将使用社会认知理论框架结合社会化框架对280名新博士进行纵向研究。生物科学专业的大学生。具体目标是：（1）开发一个纵向数据集，包括基于绩效的技能数据和社会化/培训经验，并测试 关于技能发展的具体假设。(2)确定技能发展轨迹是否因种族/民族和性别群体而异，并导致研究生院成果的不平等，并测试有关技能轨迹的假设。(3)利用调查结果中的见解提出干预措施，以改善研究生院期间的技能发展，并减少学生经历和成果中的种族/民族和性别不平等。 创建一个独特的数据集，其中包括多年博士培训中基于绩效的技能重复测量，以及动机和社会化经验类型的测量，将为生成和测试研究生教育的理论进步提供基础背景。

Utah State University will conduct a collaborative project with the University of Virginia to determine how research skills are developed in graduate students. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the goal of graduate education is to prepare a highly-skilled workforce, not just a credentialed one. Skills are, thus, central to both the process of graduate education and the value of degrees in the labor market. However, skill development is a poorly understood aspect of graduate education. The project will, therefore, demonstrate how interactions among knowledge and skill, socialization experiences, and motivation play out over time. In addition, it will provide novel insights into racial/ethnic inequalities in graduate school trajectories and outcomes. This has been a missing link in previous research about the issue of inequality. Understanding how skills are developed over time and how they interact with relevant motivational constructs can optimize the creation of training experiences that both maximize students? skill development and reduce inequality by identifying the key predictors of success and the pivotal points in the progression of Ph.D. programs. The investigators will use a Social Cognitive Theory framework in combination with the socialization framework to conduct a longitudinal study of 280 new Ph.D. matriculants in the biological sciences. The specific aims are to:(1) Develop a longitudinal dataset that includes performance-based skill data and socialization/training experiences, and test specific hypotheses regarding skill development. (2) Determine whether skill development trajectories vary across racial/ethnic and gender groups and contribute to inequalities in graduate school outcomes, and test hypotheses regarding skill trajectories.(3) Use insights from the findings to propose interventions to improve skill development during graduate school and decrease racial/ethnic and gender inequality in student experiences and outcomes. The creation of a unique dataset that includes performance-based repeated measures of skills over multiple years of doctoral training, in conjunction with measures of motivation and types of socialization experiences, will provide the foundational context to generate and test theoretical advancements in graduate education.