Collaborative Research: Progressions of Skill Development in Biology Doctorates

犹他州立大学将与弗吉尼亚大学开展一个合作项目，以确定如何培养研究生的研究技能。这项研究的意义在于，研究生教育的目标是培养高技能的劳动力，而不仅仅是培养有证书的劳动力。因此，技能是研究生教育过程的核心，也是学位在劳动力市场上的价值所在。然而，技能发展是研究生教育的一个鲜为人知的方面。因此，该项目将展示知识和技能、社交经验和动机之间的相互作用如何随着时间的推移而发挥作用。此外，它将为研究生院的轨迹和结果中的种族/民族不平等提供新的见解。这是之前关于不平等问题的研究中缺失的一个环节。了解技能是如何随着时间的推移而发展的，以及它们如何与相关的动机结构相互作用，可以优化培训体验的创造，从而最大限度地提高学生的能力。通过确定成功的关键预测因素和博士项目进展的关键点来减少不平等。研究者将运用社会认知理论框架与社会化框架相结合的方法，对280名生物科学专业新生进行纵向研究。具体目标是：(1)开发一个纵向数据集，其中包括基于绩效的技能数据和社会化/培训经验，并测试有关技能发展的特定假设。(2)确定技能发展轨迹是否在种族/民族和性别群体之间存在差异，并导致研究生学业结果的不平等，并检验有关技能发展轨迹的假设。(3)利用研究结果的见解提出干预措施，以改善研究生院期间的技能发展，减少学生经历和成果中的种族/民族和性别不平等。创建一个独特的数据集，其中包括多年博士培训中基于绩效的技能重复测量，以及动机和社交经验类型的测量，将为研究生教育中产生和测试理论进展提供基础背景。

Utah State University will conduct a collaborative project with the University of Virginia to determine how research skills are developed in graduate students. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the goal of graduate education is to prepare a highly-skilled workforce, not just a credentialed one. Skills are, thus, central to both the process of graduate education and the value of degrees in the labor market. However, skill development is a poorly understood aspect of graduate education. The project will, therefore, demonstrate how interactions among knowledge and skill, socialization experiences, and motivation play out over time. In addition, it will provide novel insights into racial/ethnic inequalities in graduate school trajectories and outcomes. This has been a missing link in previous research about the issue of inequality. Understanding how skills are developed over time and how they interact with relevant motivational constructs can optimize the creation of training experiences that both maximize students? skill development and reduce inequality by identifying the key predictors of success and the pivotal points in the progression of Ph.D. programs. The investigators will use a Social Cognitive Theory framework in combination with the socialization framework to conduct a longitudinal study of 280 new Ph.D. matriculants in the biological sciences. The specific aims are to:(1) Develop a longitudinal dataset that includes performance-based skill data and socialization/training experiences, and test specific hypotheses regarding skill development. (2) Determine whether skill development trajectories vary across racial/ethnic and gender groups and contribute to inequalities in graduate school outcomes, and test hypotheses regarding skill trajectories.(3) Use insights from the findings to propose interventions to improve skill development during graduate school and decrease racial/ethnic and gender inequality in student experiences and outcomes. The creation of a unique dataset that includes performance-based repeated measures of skills over multiple years of doctoral training, in conjunction with measures of motivation and types of socialization experiences, will provide the foundational context to generate and test theoretical advancements in graduate education.