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.

本项目旨在通过调查基于课程的本科研究经验（CURE）社区网络中教师的职业身份，为国家利益服务。本科生的研究经历已经被证明有利于本科生的成功，通过提高批判性思维技能，在stem领域的保留率和毕业率。CUREs通过将研究的关键组成部分纳入课堂或实验室环境，使所有学生都能获得研究经验和科学实践，为传统和广泛的本科研究经验提供了有效的替代方案。为了支持他们的学生，不同机构的教师组成了几个大型社区网络；每个社区网络都关注不同的主题领域。关于CURE有效性评估的研究主要集中在学生的学习成果上，如对概念学习、自我效能和科学认同的影响。很少有研究关注教师的职业身份及其在教学中的作用，这将影响学生的成功。为了帮助填补这一重要的知识空白，该项目将从CURE社区网络中招募和采访教师，以调查教师的职业身份如何通过参与CURE社区网络而受到影响。该项目的研究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CURE大学的各种教师受益，这反过来又将通过在CURE大学注册，为来自不同背景的学生扩大研究机会。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，并完善教师的专业身份框架，以解释他们的参与及其对他们作为研究人员和教师身份的影响。先前的研究确定了教授CUREs对教师的好处，包括为研究产生初步结果，为终身教职和晋升做出贡献，并为教师实验室招募高质量的学生。CURE教学的障碍包括增加的时间投入，缺乏对研究主题的学科知识，以及有限的资源。然而，教师的教学和研究身份在cure中的作用尚未被一起研究。这个项目将从身份的角度来探讨教师的动机和决策，以解决这一重大的知识差距。本项目将招募来自苹果酸脱氢酶治愈社区网络和生物化学真实科学探究实验室网络的CURE教授参加半结构化访谈。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，首席研究者将由具有定性教育研究专业知识的高级研究人员组成的多元化团队进行指导，并参加专业发展研讨会。首席研究员还将与具有与该项目有关的更广泛专业知识的顾问委员会合作。项目结果将通过会议发言和期刊出版物传播。本项目由美国国家科学基金EDU STEM教育研究核心研究能力建设（ECR BCSER）项目支持，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劳动力的发展。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。