Working Across Boundaries through promoting collaboration and interdisciplinarity in future STEM education scholars

该项目将服务于国家利益，准备三名博士后研究员参与STEM教育的创新研究，强调协作和跨学科。迫切需要加强STEM教育的跨学科工作，因为该领域越来越需要跨学科的方法来解决跨越多个学科并影响到多个学科的复杂STEM教育问题。虽然STEM教育和以学科为基础的教育研究在个别学科内取得了显著增长，但开展的跨学科工作很少。该项目将通过研究、专业发展和指导活动支持一批博士后学者，使他们成为从事有目的的跨学科教育研究的全面学者。这些学者的工作将提高不同学科和教育水平的STEM教育质量，使跨学科的STEM学生受益，并有可能加强学科之间的联系。项目活动借鉴了多个专业发展框架，包括增进博士后研究员的研究知识和技能、学术和专业发展以及专业社会化的机会。该计划将支持这些新兴的STEM教育学者成为独立的研究人员，并为STEM教育带来独特的专业知识和跨学科考虑的重新概念化。这些学者将通过个性化的专业发展计划得到支持，这些计划将包括新颖的、独立的研究、协作探究和可选的经验，如教学和/或审计课程。学者们还将接受一组精心挑选的导师的多学科指导，每个导师在支持每一位学者方面扮演着不同的角色。博士后学者将在他们未来的领域和现有的全国知名研究项目中增进知识。此外，他们还将通过一个合作研究项目，促进我们对博士后研究支持系统的理解，特别是跨学科边界。他们还将获得一系列专业发展计划，以提高他们的研究知识，发展他们的学术和专业技能，并建立他们的专业网络。队列活动将包括通过经验学习和促进讨论发展关键专业技能的机会，以及发展强大的导师和同事的专业网络。该项目由STEM教育博士后研究奖学金(STEM Ed PRF)计划资助，该计划旨在提高STEM、STEM教育、教育和相关学科的新近博士的研究知识、技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究，促进该领域知识的进步。该项目还得到了STEM教育核心研究计划(ECR)和改善本科生STEM教育计划(IUSE)的支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will serve the national interest by preparing a cohort of three postdoctoral fellows to engage in innovative research in STEM education that emphasizes collaboration and interdisciplinarity. There is an urgent need to grow interdisciplinary work in STEM education, as this field increasingly requires interdisciplinary approaches to address complex STEM education questions that cut across and impact multiple disciplines. While significant growth has occurred within individual disciplines in STEM education and Discipline Based Education Research, there has been minimal interdisciplinary work carried out. This project will support a cohort of postdoctoral scholars through research, professional development, and mentoring activities to become well-rounded scholars that engage in intentional interdisciplinary education research. The work of these scholars will improve the quality of STEM education in different disciplines and education levels, benefiting STEM students across disciplines and potentially strengthening the connections between disciplines. The project activities draw from multiple professional development frameworks and include opportunities that enhance postdoctoral fellows’ research knowledge and skills, academic and professional development, and professional socialization. The program will support these emerging STEM education scholars to become independent researchers and bring unique expertise and reconceptualizations of interdisciplinary considerations to STEM education. The scholars will be supported through individualized professional development plans that will include novel, independent research, a collaborative inquiry, and optional experiences such as teaching and/or auditing courses. Scholars will also receive multidisciplinary mentoring from an intentionally chosen collection of mentors, each of whom takes on distinct roles in supporting each scholar. The postdoctoral scholars will advance knowledge in their future field and in existing nationally prominent research projects. Also, they will advance our understanding of postdoctoral research support systems, particularly across disciplinary boundaries, through a collaborative inquiry project. They will also access a series of professional development programs to improve their research knowledge, develop their academic and professional skills, and build their professional network. Cohort activities will include opportunities to develop key professional skills through experiential learning and facilitated discussions and develop a strong professional network of mentors and colleagues. This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field. The project is also supported by the Directorate for STEM Education Core Research Program (ECR) and the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program (IUSE).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.