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

该奖项全部或部分根据2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。教师早期职业发展（CAREER）计划是国家科学基金会范围内的活动，提供奖励，以支持早期职业教师谁可以作为研究和教育的学术榜样，并导致他们的部门或组织的使命的进步。化学家在解决世界上一些最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，这需要化学家接受高级技能和知识的培训，这些技能和知识只能通过完成博士学位课程（Ph.D.）来实现。化学界内外都提出了与美国化学博士课程有效地为学生未来的职业生涯和科学努力做好准备的能力有关的重大关切。博士生培养中的这些缺陷表明，目前的体系正在培养化学家，他们应对世界下一个重大挑战的准备可以得到改善。因此，本项目将从教师的角度调查化学博士生的培训，以补充现有的研究，描述学生的观点。用于从博士学位开始到结束的学生进步的元素。程序是众所周知的和同质的。这个项目将挖掘这些元素应该如何发展一个独立的科学家，并确定教师顾问发挥的具体作用的具体理由。此外，该项目的资金将用于促进五个化学系研究生课程的重大改革。预计所有化学研究生课程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生培养的科学家的质量，为社会造福。第一个将建立一个模型，描述如何博士。学生发展成为一个独立的科学家的基础上指导教师的既定目标和学习成果。化学教师将接受采访，以发现每个核心元素的作用（S）在一个典型的化学博士课程。从主题分析，博士生教育的模式将构建和修改/验证化学教师。目标2中的活动将发现化学系的具体价值观和信念有关的博士化学学生的培训。这项重要的研究将揭示指导教师的目标，角色和身份，以及他们如何影响培训化学博士生接受。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，概述当前博士学位的主要问题。培训以及建议进行哪些改革以减轻这些问题。这些资源将分发给全国所有化学研究生课程。此外，PI将与五个特定的化学系密切合作，明确目标是实现每个化学系如何培养化学博士生的切实改革。这一具体的改革尝试旨在培养一代化学家，使他们更好地应对职业生涯中面临的挑战。该奖项反映了NSF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。

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.