Translating Theory to Practice to Diversify the Biomedical Research Community

描述（由申请人提供）：培养生物医学科学家的历史方法非常成功地创造了一个有才华、有创造力的科学家社区，但未能在这个社区中代表性不足的种族和少数民族（URM）群体的个人参与方面产生有意义的改善。这项提议的论点是，缺乏变化是生物医学研究和研究培训的基本文化和实践的意外后果。文化和实践可以很好地利用几个成熟的社会科学理论来建模和解释，包括：1)实践社区，它描述了具有共同兴趣和目标的个体如何参与实现这些目标，特别是新个体进入群体，逐渐获得（或未能获得）群体的非正式知识和实践，并成为充分参与者的过程；2)社会认知职业理论，其自我效能感、结果期望、个人目标和情境支持/障碍等变量为个体发展和职业选择的指导力量提供了洞见；3)师徒（如在生物医学研究训练中）与教练（如在体育人才培养中）的优势和固有局限性的比较。在这些理论框架的基础上，本文提出了一个实验来验证这一假设：采用复杂教练来补充科学导师通常提供的混合模型可以减轻显著影响青年URM科学家专业进步的无意识过程。该实验将是一项基于教练模式的随机对照试验，对象是160名有着强烈学术抱负的博士生。一个由这些人组成的社区将在美国各地建立，并通过年度专业发展序列、常年定期的电子会议和一个中介社会网络来维持专业发展和学术生涯的进步。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The historical approaches to training biomedical scientists have been very successful at creating a talented, creative, community of scientists, but have failed to produce meaningful improvement in the participation of individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority (URM) groups in this community. The thesis of this proposal is that the absence of change is an unintended consequence of the fundamental culture and practices of biomedical research and research training. The culture and practices can be well modeled and interpreted drawing on several well-established social science theories, including: 1) Communities of Practice, which describes how individuals with common interests and goals engage to achieve those goals, especially the processes by which new individuals enter the group, gradually acquire (or fail to acquire) the informal knowledge and practices of the group, and become full participants; 2) Social Cognitive Career Theory, through which its variables of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, personal goals, and contextual supports/barriers provide insights into forces guiding individual development and career choices; 3) a comparison of the strengths and inherent limitations of mentoring (as practiced in biomedical research training) versus coaching (as practiced in the development of athletic talents). From these theoretical frameworks, an experiment is proposed to test the hypothesis that: a hybrid model employing sophisticated coaches to complement what scientific mentors typically provide can mitigate the unconscious processes that significantly impair professional advancement of young URM scientists. The experiment would be a randomized controlled trial of a coaching-based model for a diverse cohort of 160 PhD students who have a strong desire to pursue academic careers. A community of these individuals would be created from around the U.S. and sustained through an annual professional development sequence, periodic electronic meetings throughout the years, and a mediated social network to sustain professional development and progress toward an academic career. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: To continue and enhance the prominence of the U.S. in biomedical research, we must find ways to identify, develop and employ the talents of a broader spectrum of our population. The proposed model represents a substantial shift in thinking and approach, and challenges conventional assumptions and practices, but if successful could finally achieve a breakthrough in the efforts to diversifying the biomedical workforce. It also could be applied to many disciplines and talent pools because it is a generalized model that more systematically approaches development of human talents starting from well-developed social science principles.