Creating Future Female Engineering Leaders

这个工程教育研究项目的重点是开发一个项目，将培养两组女性工程博士候选人作为教学研究员。学生将参加研讨会和其他专业发展活动，这些活动将对他们进行各种教学方法的教育。通过各种小组活动，PI打算建立一个既赋予妇女权力又留住妇女的社区，由更资深的女教师提供指导，并解决与性别有关的挑战。该项目的一个重要重点是强调多学科的教育和研究。每位学员将参加一个培训工作坊，然后是为期一周的教学训练营。该训练营侧重于教学方法和学生评估等学术界的基本技能。然后，每位研究员与塔夫茨大学的一名教员共同教授一门课程，这名教员也担任导师的角色。研究员和他们的导师每月举行一次会议，由一位教学促进者领导，为小组提供了从持续改进的角度讨论教学主题的机会。在第二年，研究员将与一名本科生研究员结成师徒关系。这一分层指导计划将有助于创建一个由本科生、博士研究员和高级教师组成的强大社区，承认学术环境中与性别相关的问题，并共同努力实现积极的文化变革。该项目的更广泛意义和重要性在于开发和实施跨学科研究生教育的可持续和适应性模式。博士研究员将成为我们学术界未来的领导者，促进使用适当的教学方法，创造一个包容的课堂环境。他们不仅会在自己选择的学科领域成为优秀的研究人员，他们也会成为优秀的教师，利用以学习者为中心的技术向学生传达工程学的兴奋和潜力。该项目与NSF支持跨学科研究和教育的战略目标重叠，这些目标对于发现物理、生命、人类和工程系统中的新兴特性和结构至关重要。该项目促进了跨学科的伙伴关系，并寻求为那些进入学术界的人提供一套促进包容性和改善课堂学习的技能。学习者社区的创建，结合从资深女教师到本科生的分层指导活动，支持了NSF扩大工程参与的目标。

This engineering education research project focuses on developing a program that will train two cohorts of female engineering doctoral candidates as teaching fellows. Students will participate in workshops and other professional development activities that will educate them in various teaching pedagogies. Through various group activities the PI intends to develop a community that both empowers and retains women, providing mentorship by more senior women faculty and addressing gender related challenges. An important focus of this project is the emphasis on multi-disciplinary education and research.Each fellow will participate in an orientation workshop followed by a week-long teaching boot camp. The boot camp focuses on essential skills for academia such as teaching pedagogies and student assessment. Each fellow then co-teaches a course with a Tufts faculty member who also serves in a mentoring role. Monthly meetings of the fellows and their mentors, led by a master teaching facilitator, provide the opportunity for the group to discuss instructional topics from a continuous improvement perspective. In their second year, the fellows are paired with an undergraduate student researcher in a mentoring relationship. This tiered mentoring program will help create a strong community of undergraduates, doctoral fellowe and senior faculty that acknowledges gender-related issues in the academic environment and works together to effect positive cultural change.The broader significance and importance of this project is the development and implementation of a sustainable and adaptable model for interdisciplinary graduate education. The doctoral fellows will become future leaders in our academic communities, promoting use of appropriate teaching pedagogies that create an inclusive classroom environment. Not only will they be excellent researchers in their chosen discipline area, they will also be excellent teachers that utilize learner centered techniques to convey the excitement and potential of engineering to students.This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of supporting, interdisciplinary, research and education that are central to the discovery of emergent properties and structures in physical, living, human, and engineered systems. This project promotes partnerships across disciplines and seeks to equip those entering academia with a skill set that promotes inclusivity and improved learning within the classroom. The creation of a community of learners, incorporating a tiered mentoring activity that reaches from senior women faculty to undergraduate students supports NSF's goal to broaden participation in engineering.