Investigating the Formation of Engineers and the Future Professoriate: Linking Writing Approaches and Attitudes to Doctoral Socialization, Persistence, and Attrition

虽然博士工程教育总体上研究不足，但研究生工程教育中的人员流失问题尤其没有得到研究。研究生院理事会（Council of Graduate Schools）最近的报告显示，在工程学领域，国内学生10年博士课程的完成率仅为59%。人员流失之所以成问题，有几个原因。首先，由于许多国内学生是由联邦拨款（例如通过国家科学基金会）和国内产业资助的，每一个过早离开学术界的国内学生都代表着一笔投资的损失。其次，研究生需要持续的工程研究和开发的数量和质量，支持工程的各个方面，影响国防，生物医学应用和能源技术，并将成为未来工程行业和学术研究的思想领袖。尽管工程学通常只被认为是一门数学和科学学科，但能否成功地为工程学的学术读者写作，可能是完成博士学位还是没有获得学位就离开的区别。然而，到目前为止，还没有研究研究工程写作、损耗/坚持和工程研究生职业目标之间的联系。本研究采用质性访谈法和统计方法，对国内决定留在研究生院和决定离开学术界的研究生进行研究。根据适用于研究生和学术写作的学术素养理论、角色认同理论和维果茨基社会文化理论，作为学科成员进行交流的能力（即发展学科话语）对于学科认同和研究社区归属感的发展至关重要。其他研究将这些特征与研究生院的坚持联系起来；然而，到目前为止，还没有研究工作探讨学生对工程写作的态度和概念，因为它与研究生在学术界的职业生涯的损耗、坚持和目标有关。一种探索性的嵌入式混合方法，强调定性，将在三年的资助期间进行。本研究旨在研究研究生课程中的研究生和在完成研究生学业之前决定离开学术界的学生（非完成者）的写作方法和态度。为了从研究生中培养未来国内教师的能力和身份，本研究的指导性研究问题如下：(1)在工程博士课程的不同阶段，研究生如何看待学术写作与学术坚持和追求学术生涯的愿望有关的作用？(2)对于那些正在考虑离开或在毕业前已经离开博士课程的研究生来说，这些看法有什么不同或相似之处？(3)写作概念、态度和自我效能感（通过调查构念测量）能否预测或与工程研究生的磨耗或坚持有很强的相关性？这项工作的智力价值在于在博士水平上对工程形成和社会化的理论进行了基础性的推进，而这些理论迄今尚未得到充分的探索。此外，写作在社会化过程中所扮演的角色，包括它与决定离开学术界的潜在关系，在任何学科中都没有以严格的定量方式进行过探索。由于研究的广泛影响，研究结果将促进基于写作的干预措施的发展，以增加美国工程博士生的坚持。更广泛的影响活动包括通过研究生的学术课程、研讨会、网络研讨会和研究生和教师的资源传播研究成果。

Though doctoral engineering education is understudied as a whole, attrition in graduate engineering education is particularly unexplored. Recent reports by the Council of Graduate Schools reported that in engineering, the 10-year completion rate for doctoral programs for domestic students was only 59%. Attrition is problematic for several reasons. First, since many domestic students are funded by federal grants (through NSF, for example) and through domestic industry, each domestic student that leaves academia prematurely represents a lost investment. Second, graduate students are required for the continued quantity and quality of engineering research and development that supports all facets of engineering, impacting defense, biomedical applications, and energy technologies, and will be future thought-leaders in engineering industry and academic research. Even though engineering is usually represented solely as a mathematical and scientific discipline, being able to successfully write for an academic engineering audience can be the difference between completing a Ph.D. or leaving without a degree. However, to date, no research has studied the linkage between engineering writing, attrition/persistence and career goals for engineering graduate students. This study employs both qualitative interview techniques and statistical methods to study domestic graduate students who have decided to stay in graduate school and those that decided to leave academia. According to Academic Literacies Theory, Role Identity Theory, and Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory applied to graduate students and academic writing, the ability to communicate as a member of a discipline (i.e., develop disciplinary discourse) is critical to the development of disciplinary identity and feelings of belonging to a research community. Other studies have linked these characteristics to persistence in graduate school; however, no work to date explores student attitudes and concepts of writing in engineering as it relates to attrition, persistence, and goals of careers in academia for graduate students. An exploratory embedded mixed methods approach with a qualitative emphasis is being conducted over the three years of this grant. This research design seeks to examine the writing approaches and attitudes of graduate students in graduate programs and in students who decided to leave academia before completing their graduate studies (non-completers). With the broader purpose of forming competencies and identities for future domestic faculty from graduate students, the guiding research questions for this study are as follows: (1) How do graduate students at various stages in their Ph.D. programs in engineering perceive the role of academic writing as it relates to academic persistence and the desire to pursue academic careers? (2) How are these perceptions different or similar for graduate students who are considering leaving or have left their Ph.D. programs before graduating? (3) Can writing concepts, attitudes, and self-efficacies (measured through survey constructs) predict or correlate strongly with graduate engineering students' attrition or persistence? The intellectual merit of this work lies in the fundamental advancement of theories of engineering formation and socialization at the doctoral level, which to date are underexplored. Furthermore, the role that writing plays in the socialization process, including its potential relationship with the decision to leave academia has not been explored in a rigorous quantitative way in any discipline. As the broader impacts of the study, the findings of the study will facilitate the development of writing based interventions to increase the persistence of U.S. doctoral engineering students. Broader impacts activities include dissemination of research results via academic courses for graduate students, and workshops, webinars, and resources for graduate students and faculty.