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

该项目旨在解决工程本科生对领导能力如何定义、发展和衡量的理解方面的差距。 具体来说，目标是：1）调查的定义，领导工程专业的学生，教师和行业的定义; 2）发展的理论模型，领导发展的本科工程专业的学生和教师的看法; 3）开发一个调查工具，以衡量领导能力和效能的工程; 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。 这个项目的影响是使工程师之间的领导能力的测量连续从一年级的本科生通过毕业，并进入他们的职业生涯作为执业工程师。 该项目的成果可用于为工程项目中的循证课程和课外活动、政策和实践提供信息，以提高国家为学生从事STEM职业做好准备的能力。该项目采用多层次、多阶段、多机构、混合的方法，以：1）从工程专业本科生和教师的角度，ABET，和国家工程学院，和建筑业; 2）开发一个理论模型，描述本科工程专业学生的领导力发展;和3）生产和试点测试的工具，以衡量领导能力（即，效能，能力和掌握）跨连续体从本科工程专业学生实践的专业人士。该研究计划是基于工程教育和领导力研究的理论，并建立在项目团队以前的工作，在工程领导力的综合集成。 为了解决相互关联的结果，本项目使用了以下方法：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.