Faculty Professional Identity in Community Networks for Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences

基于课程的本科生研究经验的社区网络中的教师专业身份

• 批准号: 2321218
• 负责人: Jing Zhang
• 金额: $ 34.98万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-11-01 至 2026-10-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2321218&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Faculty; Professional; Identity; Community; Networks

This project aims to serve the national interest by investigating faculty professional identity in Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) community networks. Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to benefit undergraduate students’ success by improving critical thinking skills, retention in STEMs, and graduation rate. CUREs provide effective alternatives to traditional and extensive undergraduate research experiences through incorporating key components of research into classroom or lab settings so that all students have access to research experiences and scientific practices. To support their students in CUREs, several large community networks of faculty at different institutions have formed; each community network focuses on a different topical area. Research on the assessment of CURE efficacy has been largely focused on student outcomes, such as its effect on conceptual learning, self-efficacy, and science identity. Few studies have looked into faculty professional identities and their roles in teaching CUREs, which will consequently impact the success of students. To help fill this important knowledge gap, this project will recruit and interview faculty from CURE community networks to investigate how faculty professional identities are influenced through participating in CURE community networks. Findings from this project will advance understanding of faculty professional identity and benefit a diverse pool of CURE faculty through informing faculty professional development activities, which will in turn broaden access to research opportunities for students from various backgrounds through enrollment in CUREs.The goal of this Individual Investigator Development – New project is to address how participation in CURE Communities of Practice impacts faculty professional identities, and to refine a faculty professional identity framework which accounts for their participation and its effects on their identities as researchers and instructors. Prior studies identified the benefits of teaching CUREs for faculty, including producing preliminary results for research, contributing to tenure and promotion, and recruiting high-quality students to faculty labs. Barriers to CURE teaching include increased time commitment, lack of subject knowledge on research topics, and limited resources. However, the roles of faculty teaching and research identities in CUREs have not been studied together. This project will take the lens of identity to explore faculty motivation and decision-making in CUREs to address this significant knowledge gap. This project will recruit CURE faculty from Malate dehydrogenase CUREs Community network and Biochemistry Authentic Scientific Inquiry Laboratory network to take part in semi-structured interviews. Transcripts will be team-coded and analyzed by thematic analysis. For this individual investigator development grant, the principal investigator will be mentored by a diverse team of senior researchers with expertise in qualitative education research and participate in professional development workshops. The principal investigator will also work with an advisory board with a broader range of expertise related to the project. Project findings will be disseminated through conference presentations and journal publications. This project is supported by NSF’s EDU Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research in the core areas of STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.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.

该项目旨在通过调查基于课程的本科生研究经验（CURE）社区网络中教师的专业身份来服务于国家利益。事实证明，本科研究经验有助于提高批判性思维能力、STEM 的保留率和毕业率，从而有利于本科生的成功。 CURE 通过将研究的关键组成部分融入课堂或实验室环境，为传统和广泛的本科生研究经验提供了有效的替代方案，以便所有学生都能获得研究经验和科学实践。为了支持 CURE 学生，不同机构的教师组成了几个大型社区网络；每个社区网络都专注于不同的主题领域。 CURE 功效评估的研究主要集中在学生的成果上，例如其对概念学习、自我效能和科学认同的影响。很少有研究探讨教师的专业身份及其在 CURE 教学中的作用，这将影响学生的成功。 为了帮助填补这一重要的知识空白，该项目将招募并采访来自 CURE 社区网络的教师，以调查参与 CURE 社区网络如何影响教师的专业身份。该项目的调查结果将促进对教师专业身份的理解，并通过为教师专业发展活动提供信息，使多样化的 CURE 教师受益，从而通过注册 CURE 扩大来自不同背景的学生获得研究机会的机会。这个个人研究者发展 – 新项目的目标是解决参与 CURE 实践社区如何影响教师的专业身份，并完善一个教师专业身份框架，该框架考虑了他们的参与及其对他们的影响 研究人员和讲师的身份。 先前的研究确定了为教师教授 CURE 的好处，包括产生初步的研究成果、为终身教职和晋升做出贡献，以及为教师实验室招募高质量的学生。 CURE 教学的障碍包括投入时间增加、缺乏研究主题的学科知识以及资源有限。然而，教师教学和研究身份在 CURE 中的作用尚未得到共同研究。该项目将从身份的角度探讨 CURE 中教师的动机和决策，以解决这一重大的知识差距。该项目将从苹果酸脱氢酶 CUREs 社区网络和生物化学真实科学探究实验室网络招募 CURE 教师参加半结构化访谈。成绩单将由团队编码并通过主题分析进行分析。对于这项个人研究者发展资助，首席研究员将接受由具有定性教育研究专业知识的多元化高级研究人员团队的指导，并参加专业发展研讨会。首席研究员还将与拥有与该项目相关的更广泛专业知识的咨询委员会合作。项目研究结果将通过会议演讲和期刊出版物进行传播。该项目得到 NSF 的 STEM 教育研究 EDU 核心研究能力建设 (ECR BCSER) 计划的支持，该计划旨在培养研究人员在 STEM 学习和学习环境的核心领域开展高质量 STEM 教育研究的能力，扩大 STEM 领域的参与以及 STEM 劳动力发展。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持。 标准。