EAGER Collaborative Proposal: Developing Engineering Faculty as Engineering Education Researchers Through Mentorship

这个探索性项目调查了工程学院如何通过nsf资助的工程形成研究启动资助的指导关系，学习成为工程教育研究人员。这项研究的结果被用于开发培训材料，并为网络活动提供信息，旨在将对工程教育研究感兴趣的工程学院与不同机构的潜在导师配对。在工程教育研究方面对工程教员进行培训，可以扩大在其课程中采用基于研究的教学实践的教员数量，并通过缩小研究与实践之间的差距来改善教学、建议、规划和决策。虽然以前的师徒关系模型关注的是工程教育作为一个领域的内容，但这项工作从成功的师徒关系中确定了有效的策略，这种关系结合了成为工程教育研究者的社会和文化因素。通过对工程教师和工程教育研究人员的师徒对进行定性访谈，本研究开发了工程教育研究人员身份形成的概念模型。该模型阐明了研究人员如何经历范式转变和潜在的职业枢纽，以扩大他们在相关但不同的工程教育学科中的专业知识。这种新颖的方法提供了重要的信息，以加强现有的培训材料，并为有兴趣进行工程教育研究的工程教员开发额外的培训机会。此外，该模型对理解职业再培训和使教师参与终身学习的方法具有启示意义。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 exploratory project investigates how engineering faculty learn to become engineering education researchers through mentoring relationships via the NSF-funded Research Initiation in Engineering Formation grants. Findings from this research are used to develop training materials and inform a networking event intended to pair engineering faculty interested in engineering education research with potential mentors at different institutions. Training engineering faculty in engineering education research expands the number of faculty adopting research-based instructional practices in their courses, and results in improved teaching, advising, programming, and policy-making by closing the research-to-practice gap.While previous mentorship models have focused on the content of engineering education as a field, this work identifies effective strategies from successful mentoring relationships that incorporate the social and cultural components of becoming an engineering education researcher. By conducting qualitative interviews of engineering faculty and engineering education researchers mentee-mentor pairs, the study the study develops a conceptual model of the formation of engineering education researchers' identity. This model clarifies how researchers undergo a paradigm shift and potential career pivot to expand their expertise in a related, but distinct, discipline of engineering education. This novel approach provides important information to enhance existing training materials and to develop additional training opportunities for engineering faculty who are interested in conducting engineering education research. Additionally, the model has implications for understanding job retraining and approaches for engaging faculty in lifelong learning.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.