IGE: Preparing Graduate Students for Community Engagement

STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)的研究生教育传统上侧重于为学生在研究密集型职业中取得成功做好准备。科学家和工程师通常没有被教导如何与社区接触，作为他们研究的一部分。教书或其他长期的职业目标。研究生往往不知道如何获得社区参与的培训，不知道社区参与的重要性，和/或缺乏参与的信心或经验。这个项目，公共服务研究员计划，将测试一个为期一年的专业发展计划，作为一种手段，让研究生将公共服务视为他们科学培训中的一种责任。它将提供与社区合作伙伴就以科学为重点的问题和项目进行合作的实际经验。将公共服务纳入STEM研究生培训将通过教授社区参与所需的特定技能和心态来改善未来几代科学家的实践。这个授予威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的国家科学基金会研究生教育创新(IGE)奖将通过培训科学和工程研究生与各种社区合作伙伴发展有意义的关系和有影响力的互惠项目来加强科学界和公众之间的联系。任何STEM学科的研究生都可以将公众关心的问题纳入他们的职业目标，无论他们是在学术、教育、外展、商业或政策领域。正在测试的模式是一个“学习、准备、实施”的序列，在这个序列中，公共服务研究员将体验到越来越多的独立性，从基础知识开始，到与社区合作伙伴直接合作、以科学为重点的实践体验。学员将能够围绕以下四个方面之一设计他们的体验：社区参与教学、直接服务、政策和社会企业。评估将集中于两个主要的研究问题：(1)研究生参与公共服务研究员计划的动机是什么？以及(2)由于参与公共服务研究员计划，学生的职业身份有何变化，该计划的哪个组成部分(S)是这些变化的主要贡献者？这些假设是，社区参与将成为研究员职业身份的一个更完整的部分，参与该计划的研究生将对社区参与有更多的承诺，无论职业道路如何，最大的影响将来自公共服务研究员计划的深入实践部分。研究生教育创新(IGE)项目专注于研究生教育的研究。IGE的目标是试验、测试和验证研究生教育的创新方法，并产生将这些方法推广到更广泛社区所需的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Graduate education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) traditionally focuses on preparing students to succeed in research-intensive careers. Scientists and engineers are generally not taught how to engage with the community as part of their research. teaching, or other long-term career goals. Graduate students often do not know how to access training in community engagement, are unaware of its importance, and/or lack the confidence or experience to take part. This project, the Public Service Fellows Program, will test a year-long professional development program as a means to prepare graduate students to view public service as a responsibility that comes with their scientific training. It will provide practical experience working with community partners on science-focused issues and projects. Integrating public service into STEM graduate student training will improve the practice of future generations of scientists by teaching the specific skills and mindsets needed for community engagement. This National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) award to the University of Wisconsin-Madison will strengthen ties between the scientific community and the public by training science and engineering graduate students to develop meaningful relationships and impactful, mutually beneficial projects with a wide variety of community partners. Graduate students from any STEM discipline will be able to incorporate issues of public concern into their career goals, whether they will pursue careers in academia, education, outreach, business, or policy. The model being tested is a "Learn, Prepare, Implement" sequence where public service fellows will experience increasing levels of independence, beginning with a grounding in foundational knowledge and progressing to a science-focused practicum experience working directly with a community partner. Fellows will be able to design their experience around one of four tracks: community-engaged teaching, direct service, policy, and social enterprise. Assessment will focus on two primary research questions: (1) What are graduate students' motivations to participate in the Public Service Fellows Program? and (2) How do students' professional identities change as a result of participation in the Public Service Fellows Program, and what component(s) of the program are primary contributors to these changes? The hypotheses are that community engagement will become a more integrated part of the fellows' professional identities, that graduate students who participate in the program will have an increased commitment to a community-engagement, regardless of career path, and that the biggest impact will be due to the in-depth practicum portion of the Public Service Fellows Program. The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.