Transdisciplinary Convergence in Educational Neuroscience Doctoral Training Program

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Two significant challenges facing the Nation's educational system are: 1) designing and delivering education that helps all students reach their full potential and 2) closing the achievement gap that negatively impacts individuals who are members of groups underrepresented in their participation in STEM fields of study relative to their representation in the general population. Through investigations of the neurobiological mechanisms of learning and teaching, Educational Neuroscience (EdNeuro) promises to revolutionize education. The EdNeuro approach transcends the one-size-fits-all approach and personalizes learning, thereby capitalizing on the strengths of individual learners while also addressing areas where their learning can be improved. This NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) award, "TRANSdisciplinary Convergence in Educational Neuroscience Doctoral (TRANSCEND) Training Program," will realize EdNeuro's potential. The project will bring together transdisciplinary research training in Cognitive Neuroscience, Education, Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics, currently siloed within distinct degree programs, to transform doctoral training. TRANSCEND anticipates preparing 50 Ph.D. students, including 25 funded trainees. Many of them will be neurodiverse learners — a group in higher education whose relatively low participation in STEM fields of study is particularly under-recognized. With a strong emphasis on neurodiversity, team science, and co-creation of research and training opportunities with community stakeholders, TRANSCEND will prepare diverse cohorts of trainees with the technical and transferable professional skills needed to excel in the 21st century STEM workforce within and outside of academia.TRANSCEND's unifying themes include (1) Innovation in EdNeuro: A bidirectional learning approach and a three-stage lab-to-school cyclical model will lead to experimentally rigorous and ecologically valid research grounded in practice, with the potential for its discoveries to translate to practice rapidly. (2) Neurodiversity: TRANSCEND centers neurodiverse learners (e.g., with ADHD, dyslexia, or autism spectrum disorder) both as a key investigation population and as trainees. TRANSCEND will prioritize recruitment and retention of neurodiverse trainees, capitalizing on an expansive partner network including NSF INCLUDES partners. (3) Team Science: TRANSCEND adds a deliberate and formal implementation of team science approaches while promoting diversity to enhance team creativity and productivity. (4) Community: The program will cultivate a culture of support and a sense of belonging through internships, receiving and providing mentorship, and participation of partners, community stakeholders, trainees' families, and faculty and students from other institutions in program activities. Transformations to graduate training and research will be sustained beyond NSF funding by a planned graduate certificate in EdNeuro. Practices and strategies will be disseminated widely for other institutions to follow the TRANSCEND model. The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.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.