Collaborative Research: Workshop proposal: Building Foundations for Engineering Faculty in Engineering Education Research

工程学院为工程教育研究提供了一个重要的视角，但他们很少接受过教育研究方法的正式培训。在工程教育研究方面培训工程教师将支持他们在课堂上采用基于研究的实践，并为建议、规划和政策提供信息。该项目将开发一系列虚拟研讨会，以支持工程学院发展教育研究技能，并将促进他们融入工程教育研究界。研讨会还将创建一个由工程学院和教育研究导师组成的协作社区，以支持工程学院的发展和由美国国家科学基金会资助的工程教育研究项目的成功。工程学院持续参与教育研究将在工程教育研究和工程教育实践之间产生协同效应。该项目的成果将包括(1)关于工程教育研究的公开可用的存档资源，(2)支持工程学院成功开展工程教育研究的可持续社区。存档的资源将放在一个公共网站上，任何有兴趣学习教育研究方法以改善工程教育的教师都可以使用。该社区将工程学院与工程教育研究专家联系起来，并促进未来合作的机会。这些成果最终将加强和多样化工程教育研究界，并使工程学院更容易接受教育研究，这反过来又将通过在工程教室中实施基于研究的实践来支持培训未来的工程劳动力。虚拟研讨会系列将为美国国家科学基金会工程形成研究启动（RIEF）计划的获奖者提供培训、结构化支持和虚拟实践社区，通过开发与研究相关的社会资本，促进他们持续参与工程教育研究，从而增强信息流动，开发理想的证书，并加强研究身份。该团队将在整个为期两年的项目中使用社会网络分析和调查来研究(1)项目获奖者之间的互动以及(2)获奖者与工程教育研究界成员之间的互动如何影响与研究相关的社会资本的发展。研讨会将支持RIEF资助项目的成功，帮助项目学员在资助周期内和之后充分融入工程教育研究社区，为项目导师提供工程教育研究资源，以支持他们的指导，为学员建立一个外部支持结构，以了解常见的研究实践，并培养其他研究导师的社区。该项目将通过增加过去和现在的项目学员和导师、工程教育研究内容专家、在该领域处于领导地位的人、潜在的未来合作者以及其他支持或促进工作的人的可用性和可及性，建立项目参与者在工程教育研究方面的专业网络。这项工作将加速参与者的强与弱关系的发展，并促进他们有目的地使用这些嵌入式资源，以帮助项目学员在两年的RIEF项目周期内及以后实现他们的工程教育研究目标。该项目将研究参与实践社区对在工程教育研究中发展工程教师的影响，并确定项目导师如何有效地建立学员社会资本。该项目将建立工程教育研究指导社区，支持工程教师的专业发展，并促进更广泛的基于研究的实践来支持学生。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Engineering faculty bring an important perspective to engineering education research, yet they are rarely formally trained in educational research methods. Training engineering faculty in engineering education research will support faculty adopting research-based practices in the classroom and inform advising, programming, and policies. This project will develop a series of virtual workshops to support engineering faculty in developing educational research skills and will facilitate their integration into the engineering education research community. The workshops will also create a collaborative community of engineering faculty and educational research mentors that will support the development of engineering faculty and the success of engineering education research projects funded by the NSF. Sustained engagement of engineering faculty in educational research will create synergies between engineering education research and engineering education practice. Outcomes of this project will include (1) publicly available, archived resources about research in engineering education, (2) a sustainable community that supports the success of engineering faculty conducting engineering education research. The archived resources will be hosted on a public website and available to any faculty interested in learning educational research methods to improve engineering education. The community will connect engineering faculty with engineering education research experts and facilitate future opportunities for collaboration. These outcomes will ultimately strengthen and diversify the engineering education research community and make educational research more accessible to engineering faculty, which will in turn support training the future engineering workforce via implementation of research-based practices in engineering classrooms. The virtual workshop series will provide training, structured support, and a virtual community of practice for NSF Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (RIEF) program awardees to promote their sustained engagement in engineering education research through the development of research-related social capital, which enhances the flow of information, develops desirable credentials, and reinforces research identity. The team will use social network analysis and surveys throughout the two-year project to study how interactions (1) among program awardees and (2) between awardees and members of the engineering education research community influence the development of research-related social capital. The workshops will support the success of funded RIEF projects, helping program mentees fully integrate into the engineering education research community during and beyond their grant cycle, providing program mentors access to engineering education research resources to support their mentoring, developing an external support structure for mentees to learn about common research practices, and cultivating a community of other research mentors. This project will build program participants’ professional networks in engineering education research by increasing availability and accessibility of past and present program mentees and mentors, engineering education research content experts, people in leadership positions in the field, potential future collaborators, and others positioned to support or promote the work. This work will accelerate participants’ development of both strong and weak ties and facilitate their purposeful use of those embedded resources to help program mentees accomplish their engineering education research goals during the two-year RIEF project cycle and beyond. The project will study the impact of participation in a community of practice in developing engineering faculty in engineering education research as well as identify how program mentors effectively build mentee social capital. The project will build the engineering education research mentorship community, support engineering faculty professional development, and promote wider implementations of research-based practices to support students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.