CAREER: Uncovering Faculty Beliefs and Values to Define a Model of Doctoral Education in Chemistry

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。学院早期职业发展(Career)计划是国家科学基金会范围内的一项活动，旨在为职业早期教师提供奖励，以支持他们在研究和教育中充当学术榜样，并在其部门或组织的使命中领导进步。化学家在解决世界上一些最重大的问题和提高所有人的生活质量方面发挥了重要作用。通常，这要求化学家接受只有在完成博士学位课程(博士学位)后才能获得的高级技能和知识的培训。化学界内外都对美国化学博士项目是否有能力为学生未来的职业生涯和科学努力做好有效的准备提出了重大关切。博士培训方面的这些缺陷表明，当前的体系正在培养化学家，他们为应对世界下一个重大挑战的准备工作可能会得到改善。因此，这个项目将从教师的角度调查化学博士生的培训，以补充现有的描述学生观点的研究。一个学生从头到尾攻读博士学位所用的要素是众所周知的，也是同类的。这个项目将揭示这些要素如何培养一名独立科学家的具体理由，并确定教师顾问所扮演的具体角色。此外，该项目的资金将用于推动五个化学系的研究生课程的重大改革。预计所有化学研究生课程都将获得通过该项目指导潜在改革的资源。这些改革有望提高化学博士培养的科学家的素质，造福社会。这一项目的三个目标指导着这一项目。第一个将建立一个模型，描述博士生如何根据教师顾问声明的目标和学习结果成长为独立的科学家。化学教师将接受采访，以发现每个核心元素在典型的化学博士项目中的作用(S)。在专题分析的基础上，构建了一种博士生培养模式，并由化学教师对其进行修改和验证。目标2中的活动将发现化学教师在培养化学博士生方面的特定价值观和信念。这项重要的研究将揭示教师顾问的目标、角色和身份，以及他们如何影响化学博士生接受的培训。这些信念预计将在博士教育中观察到的实践中产生重大影响。最后，目标3将开发资源，概述当前博士培训的主要问题，以及为缓解这些问题而提出的改革建议。这些资源将分配给全国所有的化学研究生项目。此外，PI将与五个具体的化学部门密切合作，明确目标是在每个部门培养化学博士生的方式上实现切实的改革。这项致力于具体改革的尝试旨在培养出一代化学家，他们为自己在职业生涯中面临的挑战做好了更充分的准备。这一奖项反映了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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who can serve as academic role models in research and education and lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Chemists have played a significant role in solving some of the world's greatest issues and improving the quality of life for all people. Often, this requires that chemists be trained with advanced skills and knowledge only achievable through the completion of a doctoral degree program (Ph.D.). Significant concerns have been raised both inside and out of the chemistry community related to the ability of American chemistry doctoral programs to prepare their students effectively for future careers and scientific endeavors. These shortcomings in doctoral training indicate that the current system is training chemists whose preparation to tackle the world's next grand challenges could be improved. As such, this project will investigate the training of doctoral chemistry students from the faculty perspective to complement existing research that describes student perspectives. The elements used to progress a student from beginning to end of the Ph.D. program are well-known and homogeneous. This project will unearth the specific rationale for how these elements are supposed to develop an independent scientist and identify the specific roles faculty advisors play. Additionally, funding for this project will be used to prompt significant reforms in the graduate programs in five chemistry departments. It is expected that all chemistry graduate programs will gain access to resources that guide potential reforms through this project. These reforms are expected to improve the quality of scientists produced by chemistry doctoral programs for the betterment of society.Three objectives guide this project. The first will build a model that describes how the Ph.D. student develops into an independent scientist based on faculty advisors' stated goals and learning outcomes. Chemistry faculty will be interviewed to discover each core element's role(s) in a typical chemistry doctoral program. From thematic analyses, a model of doctoral education will be constructed and modified/validated by chemistry faculty. Activities in Objective 2 will discover the chemistry faculty's specific values and beliefs pertaining to the training of doctoral chemistry students. This important research will reveal the faculty advisors' goals, roles, and identities and how they affect the training chemistry doctoral students receive. These beliefs are expected to be heavily influential in the practices that are observed in doctoral education. Finally, Objective 3 will develop resources that outline the primary issues with current Ph.D. training and what reforms have been suggested to mitigate them. These resources will be distributed to all chemistry graduate programs across the country. Additionally, the PI will work closely with five specific chemistry departments with the explicit aim of achieving tangible reform in how each trains chemistry doctoral students. This attempt to engage in specific reform aims to produce a generation of chemists that are more prepared for the challenges they will face in their careers.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.