Collaborative Research: The Effects of Information, Mentoring and Time on Economic Faculty at MSIs

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。少数民族服务机构(MSI)的教师在教育和培训科学领袖方面做出了相当大的贡献。然而，随着时间的推移，美国国家科学基金会(NSF)几乎没有收到MSI教职员工的建议。该项目将实施一项干预措施，以两种方式支持MSI教职员工。首先，麻省理工学院的教职员工将有时间撰写并向国家科学基金会提交提案。其次，将在提案准备过程中对教师进行指导。该项目将通过收集和分析来自被辅导者，即MSI教员参与者的数据来评估干预的影响。预计这一干预措施将增加MSI教职员工提交的NSF提案，提高他们的提案准备技能，并从长远来看，有助于将MSI的教职员工更多地纳入STEM。Will大学的本科生将通过协助数据收集和分析来支持研究过程。先前的倡议表明，指导干预的建议可能会通过几个渠道改变行为，例如信息意识和反馈、角色模型和网络、认知负荷理论和元认知意识。在这些不同的变化理论背后，有一个似乎被视为理所当然的因素：教师的时间。这项研究将通过向MSI教师指导学生提供课程发布来直接解决时间限制，以编写建议并通过密集的指导、研讨会和任务汇报解决其他限制。调查结果将从结合定量和定性数据分析(即调查和重点小组)的混合方法中得出。将通过比较参与干预前后的不同结果，特别是向NSF提交的提案，来评估影响，包括一组接受指导的治疗对象和一组申请但未被接纳的对照组。研究结果将在学术会议、与NSF等联邦机构的会议上传播，并通过将发布在国家经济研究局的最终报告的方式发布。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Faculty at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) make considerable contributions to educating and training science leaders. Yet, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has received few proposals from MSI faculty over time. This project will implement an intervention that will support MSI faculty in two ways. First, MSI faculty will be granted time to write and submit proposals to the NSF. Second, faculty will be mentored through the proposal preparation process. The project will evaluate the impacts of the intervention by collecting and analyzing data from mentees, i.e., MSI faculty participants. The intervention is expected to increase NSF proposal submissions by MSI faculty, improve their proposal preparation skills, and in the long run, contribute to greater inclusion of faculty at MSIs in STEM. Undergraduate students at will support the research process by assisting with data collection and analysis. Prior initiatives suggest that a proposal mentoring intervention such is likely to change behavior through several channels, e.g., information awareness and feedback, role models and networks, cognitive load theory, and metacognitive awareness. Underlying these different theories of change, is a factor that seems to have been taken for granted: faculty’s time availability. This research will directly tackle time constraints by offering MSI faculty mentees a course release to write proposals and address other constraints through intensive mentoring, workshops, and debriefing. Findings will be derived from a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative data analyses (i.e., surveys and focus groups). Impacts will be assessed by comparing different outcomes, in particular proposal submissions to NSF, before and after participating in the intervention across a treatment group of mentees and a control group of those who applied but were not admitted. Findings will be disseminated at academic conferences, meetings with federal agencies such as NSF, and by means of a final report to be posted on the National Bureau of Economic Research.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.