Design and Development: Fostering Graduate Student Professional Development Through an Instructional Incubator and Teaching Apprenticeship Model

美国的生物医学研究高度依赖于主要由研究生进行的学术研究。在整个研究生学习过程中，生物医学学生都沉浸在研究中，很少或根本没有接受过最佳教学实践方面的培训，也没有了解其他非学术职业机会，如工业或政府机构。因此，那些不想继续传统学术生涯的毕业生很难过渡到非学术生涯，因为他们对其他选择知之甚少；此外，那些留在学术和研究领域的人也在努力应对他们作为教师面临的日益增长的教学需求。虽然研究生院过去被认为是从事学术研究的必经之路，但一份学术工作已不再是保证。因此，生物医学研究生项目有责任重新考虑如何培养学生毕业后的职业。该项目的目标是为研究生开发一个课程序列，以了解更多关于替代职业和最佳教学实践的知识。研究生不仅将学习职业和教学实践，而且还将与博士后研究员和教职员工合作，将他们学到的知识转化为本科课堂。这将使他们有机会获得第一手的教学经验，并考虑如何培养当今生物医学工作者所需的关键技能。这个设计和发展项目的目的是为研究生作为教育工作者和非学者的专业发展开发一个可转移的模型。研究生教育面临着两个根本问题：1)选择追求学术的学生没有受过如何教学的训练；而且，选择离开学术界的毕业生几乎没有其他的研究生机会。本项目的重点是发展孵化器/学徒模式，使研究生能够接触到快速变化的科技创新世界和劳动力趋势，同时沉浸在课程设计的学习理论和研究型教学方法的探索中（例如，基于问题的学习，主动学习）。因此，研究生将参与一个身临其境的课程开发经验，以证据为基础的实践，并暴露在非学术研究生的机会，通常没有在高等教育中直接解决。这种创新的发展利用了教学设计过程、社会建构主义理论、情境学习理论和教师信念。虽然这个概念的证明是在生物医学工程的背景下建立的，但提出的作用理论是广泛适用的。将对建议的序列的影响进行定性和定量研究。学生将在教学前后接受调查。一部分学生也将接受面试。这一建议的教学设计序列是一种全新的、可转移的模式的概念证明，该模式用于培养研究生的专业发展，以响应快速变化的科技创新世界和劳动力趋势。研究结果将在密歇根大学生物医学工程转化工程教育网站上发布，并通过教育会议和期刊文章发布。其他有兴趣实施这一程序的机构也可以参加任何课程并进行咨询。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Biomedical research in the United States is highly dependent on academic research primarily performed by graduate students. Throughout their graduate studies, biomedical students immerse themselves in research, with little or no training in best teaching practices or knowledge of alternative, non-academic career opportunities, such as industry or government agencies. As a result, graduates who do not continue with traditional academic careers struggle with the transition to non-academic careers because they know very little about alternatives; also, those who remain in academics and research struggle with the increasing teaching demands they face as faculty. While graduate school used to be considered a rite of passage to a career in academic research, a job in academics is no longer a guarantee. Thus, biomedical graduate programs have a responsibility to reconsider how they are training their students for their careers after graduation. The goal of this project is to develop a course sequence for graduate students to learn more about alternative careers and best teaching practices. The graduate students will not only learn about careers and teaching practices, but they also will work with postdoctoral fellows and faculty to translate what they learn into an undergraduate classroom. This will give them a chance to have a first-hand teaching experience and consider how to develop the critical skills needed by today's biomedical workforce. The purpose of this Design and Development project is to develop a transferrable model for graduate student professional development as both educators and non-academics. Graduate education is faced with two fundamental problems: 1) students who choose to pursue academics are not trained how to teach; and, 2) graduates who choose to leave academics have little exposure to alternative postgraduate opportunities. This project focuses on developing an Incubator/Apprenticeship Model that exposes graduate students to the rapidly changing world of science and technology innovations and workforce trends, while being immersed in the exploration of learning theories and research-based teaching approaches for curriculum design (e.g. problem-based learning, active learning). As a result, graduate students will participate in an immersive curriculum development experience informed by evidence-based practices and be exposed to non-academic postgraduate opportunities commonly not addressed directly in higher education. The development of this innovation leverages the instructional design process, social constructivist theory, situated learning theory, and instructor beliefs. While this proof of concept is grounded in the context of biomedical engineering, the proposed theory of action is broadly applicable. The impact of the proposed sequence will be studied qualitatively and quantitatively. Students will be surveyed pre- and post-instruction. A subset of students will also be interviewed. This proposed instructional design sequence is a proof of concept for a novel, transferrable model for programs to foster graduate student professional development that is responsive to the rapidly changing world of science and technology innovations and workforce trends. Results will be disseminated on the University of Michigan Biomedical Enginering Transforming Engineering Education website and through educational conferences and journal articles. Other institutions interested in implementing this sequence are invited to attend any of the classes and reach out for consultation.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.