IGE: Developing a Research Engineer Identity

这项授予北卡罗来纳A&T州立大学(NCAT)的国家科学基金会研究生教育创新(IGE)奖将研究工程学研究生研究认同感的发展。简而言之，研究认同是指研究生将自己定义为研究人员的方式，是学生成功的重要因素。具体地说，该项目将实施并测试在非研究密集型机构培养研究生研究认同感的方法。应该指出的是，规模较小的机构/项目经常面临缺陷，这可能会影响教师导师培养学生研究身份的能力，无论是个人还是作为一个更大的群体的一部分。在工程学中，教师导师通常指导研究生的研究经验，而导师是帮助研究生发展他们作为工程研究人员身份的主要资源。鉴于这种学徒制模式，学生在发展职业认同方面得到的指导和指导在很大程度上取决于教师导师的风格、资源和研究生群体的规模。该项目正在测试可能克服这些限制的干预措施，特别是对规模较小的研究生课程的学生。这项关于工程研究认同的研究将在卡内基R2学院(NCAT)进行，该机构是非洲裔美国工程师的领先生产商，它将实施基于认同的社会学和心理学理论的三管齐下的方法。该项目包括(1)建立研究工程师网络，帮助研究生形成研究工程师身份；(2)由具有共同兴趣的教职员工组成小型研究小组，他们将培养学生的研究技能；以及(3)设计和管理基于调查的研究工程师认同量表和评估，使用混合方法研究设计，包括焦点小组、结构化访谈和基于网络的调查。设计的最终结果将是一项准实验测试，比较参与研究的学生和控制组学生的研究认同发展情况。这个项目中的三个协同创新将共同建立和评估一个创新的基础设施，以发展工程学研究生的研究身份。预计该项目的成果将广泛适用于大学，尤其是在规模较小的研究生项目中的实践。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。

This National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) award to North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT) will study the development of research identity in engineering graduate students. Briefly stated, research identity refers to the ways in which graduate students define themselves as researchers and is an important factor in student success. Specifically, this project will implement and test approaches to foster research identity development for graduate students in non-research-intensive institutions. It should be noted that smaller institutions/programs often face deficiencies that can impact the ability of faculty mentors to foster student research identities both individually and as part of a larger group. In engineering, a faculty advisor generally guides the graduate research experience and the advisor is the primary resource to help graduate students develop their identities as engineering researchers. Given this apprenticeship model, the mentoring and guidance that a student receives in developing a professional identity is largely dependent on the style, resources, and graduate student group size of the faculty mentor. This project is testing interventions that could potentially overcome these limitations, particularly for students in smaller graduate programs.This study on engineering research identity will be conducted at a Carnegie R2 institution (NCAT), a leading producer of African-American engineers, and it will implement a three-pronged approach that is grounded in sociological and psychological theories of identity. The project entails (1) establishing a Research Engineer Network that will help graduate students develop a research engineer identity; (2) forming Small Research Groups of faculty members with common interests who will foster students' research skills; and (3) designing and administering a survey-based Research Engineer Identity scale and assessment using a mixed-methods research design that includes focus groups, structured interviews, and web-based surveys. The design will culminate with a quasi-experimental test comparing the development of research identify among students participating in the study and a control group of matched students. The three coordinated innovations in this project will collectively build and assess an innovative infrastructure for developing research identify in graduate engineering students. It is anticipated that the project results will be applicable to universities broadly, while particularly informing practice in smaller graduate programs.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.