EAGER Collaborative Proposal: Building a Community of Mentors in Engineering Education Research Through Peer Review Training

这个探索性研究的早期概念资助（EAGER）项目探索了研究人员在审查工程教育研究（EER）奖学金方面的指导，从而促进了期刊手稿和资助提案同行评审培训的发展。作为一个领域，EER受益于旨在改善工程教育和挑战现有工程师专业形成模式的多种视角，但需要通过回顾来规范学者如何磨练自己的研究和沟通技巧。我们提出EER同行评审培训（EER PERT）计划，利用《工程教育杂志》（JEE）指导评审计划中开发的知识和组织结构，在该计划中，三名学员和导师（经验丰富的评审人员）合作撰写及时，建设性的JEE手稿评审。EER PERT参与者包括学员、导师和导师教练。不同的参与者将通过竞争性的申请程序和个人和专业网络招聘，包括HBCU和MSI网络。教练将通过定期调查和会议来监控导师/学员三合会中指导关系的质量，并将向项目团队提供反馈。在开发和实施培训的同时，我们将研究审稿人如何开发EER的心智模型。正在进行的关于同行评审过程的研究已经发现了一些问题，包括缺乏审稿人培训、不一致和有偏见的审稿人以及缺乏合格的审稿人。低质量的同行评议会导致低质量的奖学金；过于苛刻的负面评价可能会排除社区中的各种声音，扼杀创新。我们将利用通过JEE指导审稿人计划开发的培训框架，在该框架中，参与者描述了扩展专业知识的积极成果，对研究质量的更好理解，以及将关于同行评审的主导（消极）话语转变为对知识生产和出版的更积极的看法。我们从社会文化的角度，认识到社会互动在知识和元认知的共同建构中的作用，提出了以下研究问题：学者如何通过合作构建同行评议来开发质量工程教育研究的图式？稿件和拨款提案审查的图式开发有什么异同？EER专家计划将提高EER手稿和提案的质量，并最终增加EER学术的影响。通过在EER社区内发展奖学金审查技能而创建的积极反馈循环将使美国国家科学基金会在EER项目上的投资最大化。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。

This Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project explores mentorship of researchers in reviewing engineering education research (EER) scholarship, leading to the development of training in peer review of journal manuscripts and grant proposals. As a field, EER benefits from diverse perspectives aimed at improving engineering education and challenging existing models of professional formation of engineers, but there is a need to formalize how scholars hone their own research and communication skills through reviewing. We propose the EER Peer Review Training (EER PERT) program, leveraging the knowledge and organizational structure developed in the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE) Mentored Reviewer Program in which triads of mentees and mentors (experienced reviewers) collaboratively write timely, constructive reviews of JEE manuscripts. EER PERT participants include mentees, mentors, and mentor coaches. Diverse participants will be selected through a competitive application process and recruitment through personal and professional networks, including HBCU and MSI networks. Coaches will monitor the quality of the mentoring relationships within mentor/mentee triads through periodic surveys and meetings, and will provide feedback to the project team. In parallel with developing and implementing this training, we will study how reviewers develop mental models of EER. Ongoing studies about the peer review process have identified problems including lack of reviewer training, inconsistent and biased reviews, and dearth of qualified reviewers. Poor quality peer reviews can lead to poor quality scholarship; overly harsh, negative reviews can exclude diverse voices in the community and stifle innovation. We will leverage a training framework developed through the JEE Mentored Reviewer Program, in which participants have described positive outcomes of expanded expertise, a greater understanding of research quality, and shifting the dominant (negative) discourses about peer review to a more positive view of knowledge production and publishing. Taking a sociocultural perspective that recognizes the role of social interaction in co-construction of knowledge and metacognition, we pose these research questions: How do scholars develop schema for quality engineering education research through collaboratively constructing peer reviews? What are the similarities and differences between schema development for manuscript and grant proposal review?The EER PERT program will enhance the quality of EER manuscripts and proposals, and ultimately increase the impact of scholarship in EER. The positive feedback loop created through developing scholarship review skills within the EER community will maximize NSF investments in EER projects.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.