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

工科教师为工程教育研究带来了重要的视角，但他们却很少接受正规的教育研究方法培训。在工程教育研究方面培训工程学教师将支持教师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讲习班，以支持工程学教师培养教育研究技能，并将促进他们融入工程学教育研究界。研讨会还将创建一个由工程学教师和教育研究导师组成的协作社区，以支持工程学教师的发展和由NSF资助的工程教育研究项目的成功。工程教师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创造协同效应。该项目的成果将包括(1)关于工程教育研究的公开的、存档的资源，(2)一个支持工程教员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职员工都可以使用。该社区将把工程学教师与工程教育研究专家联系起来，并促进未来的合作机会。这些成果最终将加强和多样化工程教育研究社区，并使工程教师更容易获得教育研究，这反过来将通过在工程课堂上实施以研究为基础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NSF工程形成研究启动(REF)计划获奖者提供培训、结构化支持和虚拟实践社区，以通过开发与研究相关的社会资本来促进他们对工程教育研究的持续参与，这加强了信息流动，发展了理想的证书，并加强了研究身份。该团队将在整个为期两年的项目中使用社交网络分析和调查，以研究(1)项目获奖者之间的互动以及(2)获奖者与工程教育研究社区成员之间的互动如何影响与研究相关的社会资本的发展。这些研讨会将支持REF资助项目的成功，帮助计划导师在他们的资助周期内和之后完全融入工程教育研究社区，为计划导师提供访问工程教育研究资源的机会以支持他们的指导，为学生建立一个外部支持结构以了解共同的研究实践，并培养一个由其他研究导师组成的社区。该项目将通过增加过去和现在的项目导师、工程教育研究内容专家、该领域领导职位的人、潜在的未来合作者以及其他能够支持或促进这项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发展强联系和弱联系，并促进他们有目的地使用这些嵌入的资源，以帮助计划导师在两年的REF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培养工程教育研究中的工程教师的影响，并确定项目导师如何有效地建立被辅导者的社会资本。该项目将建立工程教育研究导师社区，支持工程学教师的专业发展，并促进以研究为基础的实践的更广泛实施，以支持学生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.