Preparing a 21st Century STEM Workforce: Defining & Measuring Leadership in Engineering Education

本项目旨在解决如何定义、发展和衡量工程本科生领导能力的理解差距。具体来说，目标是：1)调查由工程专业学生、教师和行业定义的领导力的定义；2)建立一个由工科本科生和教师感知的领导力发展的理论模型；3)开发一种测量工程领导能力和效能的调查工具；4)收集和分析数据，着眼于评估专业、性别、社会经济地位、代际地位和种族之间的差异。这个项目的影响是能够测量工程师的领导能力，从本科一年级到毕业，再到他们作为实践工程师的职业生涯。该项目的结果可用于为工程项目的循证课程和课外活动、政策和实践提供信息，以提高国家为STEM职业培养学生的能力。该项目采用多层次、多阶段、多机构、混合的方法：1)从工程、ABET、国家工程院和建筑行业的本科生和教师的角度，对工程领导力产生清晰的定义；2)建立描述工科本科生领导力发展的理论模型；3)生产和试点测试一个工具来衡量领导能力（即效能、能力和掌握），从本科工程学生到实践专业人员。该研究计划以工程教育和领导力研究的理论为基础，并建立在项目团队之前的工作基础上，以产生工程学领导力的元综合。为了解决相互关联的结果，本项目使用以下方法：三轮德尔菲研究，q -排序，演绎分析，七步调查开发协议和扎根理论方法。

This project aims to address the gap in understanding of how leadership competency is defined, developed, and measured in engineering undergraduates. Specifically, the goals are to: 1) investigate the definition of leadership as defined by engineering students, faculty, and industry; 2) develop a theoretical model of leadership development as perceived by undergraduate engineering students and faculty; 3) develop a survey instrument to measure leadership capacity and efficacy in engineering; and 4) collect and analyze data with an eye toward evaluating differences between or among major, gender, socio-economic status, generational status, and ethnicity. The impact of this project is the enabling of measurement of leadership competencies among engineers on a continuum from first year undergraduate students through graduation and into their careers as practicing engineers. The results of this project can be used to inform evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities, policies and practices in engineering programs to improve the nation's capacity to prepare students in STEM careers.The project uses a multilevel, multiphase, multi-institutional, mixed methodology to: 1) generate a clear definition of engineering leadership from the perspectives of undergraduate students and faculty in engineering, ABET, and National Academy Engineering, and the construction industry; 2) develop a theoretical model describing leadership development among undergraduate engineering students; and 3) produce and pilot test an instrument to measure leadership competency (i.e., efficacy, capacity, and mastery) across a continuum from undergraduate engineering students to practicing professionals. The research plan is grounded in theories from engineering education and leadership studies and builds on the project team's previous work in producing a meta-synthesis of leadership in engineering. To address the interconnected outcomes, this project uses the following methods: three-round Delphi Study, Q-Sort, deductive analysis, a seven-step survey development protocol and grounded theory methods.