Collaborative Research: Progressions of Skill Development in Biology Doctorates

合作研究：生物学博士技能发展的进展

• 批准号: 1431234
• 负责人: David Feldon
• 金额: $ 115.14万
• 依托单位: Utah State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1431234&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Progressions; Skill; Development

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.

犹他州立大学将与弗吉尼亚大学开展一个合作项目，以确定研究生的研究技能是如何发展的。这项研究的意义在于，研究生教育的目标是培养一支高技能的劳动力队伍，而不仅仅是有资格证书的劳动力。因此，技能对研究生教育过程和学位在劳动力市场上的价值都是至关重要的。然而，技能发展是研究生教育中一个鲜为人知的方面。因此，该项目将展示知识和技能、社交体验和动机之间的互动是如何随着时间的推移而发挥作用的。此外，它还将对研究生院的发展轨迹和结果中的种族/民族不平等现象提供新的见解。在之前关于不平等问题的研究中，这是一个缺失的环节。了解技能是如何随着时间的推移而发展的，以及它们是如何与相关的动机结构相互作用的，可以优化培训体验的创造，从而使学生最大化？通过确定成功的关键预测因素和博士项目发展的关键点来发展技能和减少不平等。研究人员将使用社会认知理论框架与社会化框架相结合，对280名生物科学领域的新博士研究生进行纵向研究。具体目标是：(1)开发一个包括基于绩效的技能数据和社会化/培训经验的纵向数据集，并测试关于技能发展的具体假设。(2)确定不同种族/族裔和性别群体的技能发展轨迹是否不同，是否导致研究生成绩不平等，并测试有关技能轨迹的假设。(3)利用调查结果的见解提出干预措施，以改善研究生期间的技能发展，减少学生经历和结果中的种族/族裔和性别不平等。创建一个独特的数据集，其中包括多年博士培训期间基于绩效的重复技能测量，以及动机和社会化经历类型的测量，将为产生和测试研究生教育的理论进步提供基础背景。