Advancing the Use of Professional Decision-Making Strategies in a Culturally Diverse Research Community

当代科学是一项全球性事业。随着全球化和研究变得更加复杂和专业化，国际研究合作继续增加。在美国，国际研究人员，特别是来自东亚国家的研究人员（例如，中国、台湾、韩国、日本），占研究人员的很大一部分。来自不同文化背景的研究人员可能会根据他们的文化教养采取不同的方法来解决问题。决策策略帮助研究人员在整个职业生涯中面临复杂和模糊的专业和道德问题。然而，很少有证据表明文化教养如何塑造研究人员在研究中对伦理问题做出决定时所采取的方法。在美国，培养负责任的研究行为（RCR）的教育方法通常也忽视了这个问题。有一个迫切需要研究决策中的文化差异，并制定RCR培训，更具有文化包容性和有效的研究人员从东方和西方的文化背景。本项目的目标是识别和理解东亚和美国研究人员决策策略的相似性和差异，并利用这些知识来完善和评估文化包容性RCR培训课程的有效性，重点是决策技能。该项目的数据将促进对东亚研究人员观点的认识。这种意识将有助于改善研究人员之间的沟通，解决问题和解决冲突的技能。该项目有三个目标：1）使用定性的有声思维访谈确定东亚和美国研究人员在道德和专业决策策略方面的异同，2）完善和提供文化包容的RCR培训课程，并评估决策策略的学习成果，策略使用的行为指标和实施意图，3）评估参加RCR培训的参与者是否在日常研究活动中应用决策策略，并测试每月一次的学习迁移干预对策略使用的影响。一个基于插图的研究专业决策的措施将由数百名美国和东亚教师，博士后研究人员和研究生完成。然后将对美国和东亚研究人员进行深入访谈，这些研究人员在专业决策措施上得分较低和较高，以确保对接近决策的策略有全面的看法。从采访中获得的数据将被用于完善，交付和评估将交付给多个学生群体的RCR培训计划。将从RCR培训计划参与者中收集纵向数据，以确定改进的RCR培训和学习迁移干预对学习成果和行为的影响。总的来说，更好地认识到文化对研究人员工作场所观点和行为的影响，为研究界之间的公开对话奠定了基础，并加强了研究，教学，研究人员在社会中扮演的角色和社区角色。该提案由SBE理事会和国际科学与工程办公室通过ER2计划资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来提供支持。

Contemporary science is a global enterprise. International research collaborations continue to increase with globalization and as research becomes more complex and specialized. In the United States (U.S.), international researchers, especially from East Asian countries (e.g., China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan), make up a large portion of the research workforce. Researchers from different cultures may take different approaches to problems depending on their cultural upbringing. Decision-making strategies help researchers navigate complex and ambiguous professional and ethical problems they face throughout their careers. Yet, there is little evidence of how cultural upbringing shapes the approaches researchers take when making decisions about ethical problems in research. Educational approaches to fostering responsible conduct of research (RCR) in the U.S. have generally overlooked this issue as well. There is an urgent need to examine cultural differences in decision making and develop RCR training that is more culturally inclusive and effective for researchers from Eastern and Western cultural backgrounds. The goal of the present project is to identify and understand the similarities and differences in decision-making strategies among East Asian and U.S. researchers and use this knowledge to refine and evaluate the effectiveness of a culturally inclusive RCR training curriculum focused on decision-making skills. Data from this project will foster awareness of the perspectives of East Asian researchers. This awareness will contribute to improved communication, problem solving, and conflict resolution skills among researchers. This project addresses three objectives: 1) identify similarities and differences in ethical and professional decision-making strategies among East Asian and U.S. researchers using qualitative think-aloud interviews, 2) refine and deliver a culturally inclusive RCR training curriculum and assess the learning outcomes of decision-making strategies, behavioral indicators of strategy use, and implementation intentions, and 3) evaluate whether participants in the refined RCR training apply decision-making strategies in their daily research activities and test the effect of a monthly learning transfer intervention on strategy use over time. A vignette-based measure of professional decision-making in research will be completed by hundreds of U.S. and East Asian faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students. In-depth interviews will then be conducted with U.S. and East Asian researchers with both low and high scores on the professional-decision making measure to ensure a comprehensive range of perspectives about strategies for approaching decision-making. Data from interviews will then be used to refine, deliver, and evaluate a RCR training program that will be delivered to multiple cohorts of students. Longitudinal data will be collected from RCR training program participants to determine the effects of the refined RCR training and a learning transfer intervention on learning outcomes and behavior. Overall, greater awareness of cultural influences on the workplace perspectives and behaviors of researchers lays the groundwork for open dialogue among the research community and strengthening research, teaching, and community roles that researchers play in society.This proposal was funded through the ER2 program by the SBE Directorate and Office of International Science and Engineering.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.