IGE: Enhancing Doctoral Research Training through Cascading Mentorship (Anteater Huddles)

这项授予加州大学欧文分校的国家科学基金会研究生教育创新(IGE)奖将测试针对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)博士生的级联导师计划。一种有数百年历史的博士导师模式认为，学生通过在实验室与他们的教师导师一起工作来学习。然而，研究演变成了一种团队活动，导师和学生担任不同的角色，很少在同一任务中一起工作。在这种环境下，学生通常从高级研究生和博士后研究人员那里学到大多数研究技能，而不是从他们的教师导师那里学到。级联导师制描述了这样一种模式，即从丰富的教职员工和同行网络中进行指导。与那些不接受连锁导师指导的博士生相比，接受连锁导师指导的博士生更有可能发展出强大的研究技能，无论他们从主要教师顾问那里得到的指导质量如何。然而，并不是所有的学生都是在大型、运转良好的实验室接受培训的，这些实验室拥有现成的级联导师网络。此外，与大多数教师的文化认同相同或不同，以及第一代学生在接触具有博士学位经验的教师导师、朋友或家人方面的差异等因素，可能会导致指导质量的差异。因此，当博士项目不能提供丰富的级联导师网络时，最受影响的可能是来自少数族裔社区的学生。在这个项目中，大约65名认知科学高级研究生和博士后研究人员将接受培训，领导每个人5到10名博士生的级联导师小组。这些小组将使用成熟的教学方法来帮助成员计划他们的研究，组织他们的时间，并学习产生学术成功所依赖的写作形式，例如：文献综述，资助提案，研究报告等。这个项目将解决与四个扩大挑战有关的研究问题：1)小组领导效应，即当这些指导小组由高级研究生而不是由教员领导时，该方法是否有效；2)实施成本，即这些小组是否能以大多数博士项目负担得起的方式得到支持；3)在不同领域的多年连锁辅导的长期效果，包括：写作数量和质量；研究生课程的进展；心理健康和幸福感；以及4)广泛的适用性，即该模式是否对所有学生都同样有效，或者是否只有一部分学生受益。该项目的结果将帮助各部门决定是在整个项目范围内采用级联导师模式，还是为部分学生提供这种模式的选择。研究生教育创新(IGE)项目专注于研究生教育研究。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 of Graduate Education (IGE) award to the University of California-Irvine will test a cascading mentorship program for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) doctoral students. A centuries-old model of doctoral mentoring assumed that students learn by working alongside their faculty advisors at the lab bench. However, research as evolved into a team activity with advisors and students serving different roles and rarely working together at the same task. In this environment, students typically learn most research skills from advanced graduate students and postdoctoral researchers rather than their faculty advisors. Cascading mentorship describes such a model of mentoring from a rich network of faculty and peers. Doctoral students who receive cascading mentorship are much more likely to develop strong research skills than those who do not regardless of the quality of mentoring received from their primary faculty advisors. However, not all students are trained in large, well-functioning labs with ready-made cascading mentorship networks. In addition, factors such as shared or dissimilar cultural identity with the majority of faculty and differences in first-generation students’ access to faculty mentors, friends, or family members with doctoral degree experience may result in differences in the quality of mentoring. Thus, when doctoral programs fail to provide rich networks of cascading mentorship, it is the students from minority communities who are likely to suffer most.In this project, approximately 65 advanced graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in cognitive science will be trained to lead cascading mentorship groups of five to ten doctoral students each. The groups will use proven pedagogical methods to help members plan their research, organize their time, and learn to produce the forms of writing on which academic success depends such as: literature reviews, funding proposals, research reports, etc. This project will address research questions related to four scale-up challenges: 1) group leader effects, i.e., whether the approach works when these mentorship groups are led by advanced graduate students rather than by a faculty member; 2) implementation cost, i.e., whether these groups can be supported in a way that is affordable for most doctoral programs; 3) long-term effects of cascading mentorship over a period of years in a variety of domains including: writing quantity and quality; progress through the graduate program; mental health and well-being; and 4) broad suitability, i.e., whether the model is equally effective for all students or whether only a subset of students benefit. Results from this project will help departments decide whether to adopt a cascading mentorship model program-wide or offer this model as an option for a subset of students.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.