Training Scientists to Tackle Grand Challenge Societal Problems through Convergent Action in Transdisciplinary Teams

人类面临的一些问题令人望而生畏，似乎几乎不可能解决。这些重大挑战包括全球气候变化、粮食不安全、不断扩大的社会经济不平等、克服系统性种族不平等以及新出现的传染病。学者们之所以给这些问题贴上“邪恶问题”的标签，是因为它们非常复杂，而且利益相关者对其原因和可能的解决方案存在根本分歧。然而，正是这些问题是社会最需要解决的。这个授予俄亥俄州立大学的NSF研究生教育创新(IGE)奖将试验、测试和验证一个创新项目，该项目将把研究生培养成“邪恶的”科学家--能够有效地在跨学科团队中工作的研究人员，以解决此类问题的复杂性、不确定性和矛盾性。为了有效地做到这一点，研究生需要成为各自领域的专家。然而，他们还需要发展跨学科技能，以便与其他研究人员和其他利益攸关方成功合作。该项目使用一个全面和集成的“邪恶科学”概念框架来试验、测试和验证这种培训。学习计划将采取跨学科研究生辅修课程的形式，包括三门课程和一个电子文件夹。这种方法包括发展一个由学生、校友、教职员工和其他利益相关者组成的实践社区，以促进长期的专业学习。培训计划的经验教训将被组织和传播，以便美国和其他国家的其他高等教育机构很容易采用。研究人员将使用一种混合方法，将经过验证的心理测量评估和民族志方法相结合，以检查该项目是否以及如何在培养“邪恶科学家”和创造一种趋同的制度文化方面取得成功。项目评估由四个部分组成。首先是评估课程和课程组成部分及其在培训不同核心能力方面的有效性。第二是完成研究生跨学科专业后对学生核心能力的全面评估。第三，对参加该项目的学生和未参加该项目的学生的核心能力进行受控比较。最后一部分是对更大的机构背景的研究，以及它如何影响学生培训和更广泛的项目。最重要的假设是，完成所有项目组成部分并参与实践社区的学生将显示出更好的能力发展和在所有项目指标上的更高分数。这些措施将包括四种有效的心理测量工具，与部分完成培训计划或根本不参加培训计划的学生进行比较。研究生教育创新(IGE)计划侧重于研究生教育的研究。IGE的目标是试验、测试和验证研究生教育的创新方法，并产生将这些方法推广到更广泛社区所需的知识。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。

Some problems facing humanity are so daunting that they seem nearly impossible to solve. These grand challenges include global climate change, food insecurity, widening socio-economic inequality, overcoming systemic racial inequities, and emerging infectious diseases. Scholars have come to label these "wicked problems" because they are highly complex and marked by fundamental disagreement among stakeholders regarding their cause and possible solution. Nevertheless, it is precisely these problems that society most needs to address. This NSF Innovations of Graduate Education (IGE) award to the Ohio State University will pilot, test, and validate an innovative project that trains graduate students to become "wicked" scientists—researchers who can work effectively in transdisciplinary teams to tackle the complexities, uncertainties, and conflictive nature of such problems. To do so effectively, graduate students need to be experts in their respective fields. However, they also need to develop transdisciplinary skills to collaborate successfully with fellow researchers and other stakeholders. This project uses a comprehensive and integrated conceptual framework of "wicked science" to pilot, test, and validate such training. The program of study will take the form of an interdisciplinary graduate minor that consists of three courses and an e-portfolio. This approach includes the development of a community of practice consisting of students, alumni, faculty, and other stakeholders that fosters long-term professional learning. Lessons from the training program will be organized and disseminated so that they can be readily adopted by other institutions of higher education in the United States and beyond.The researchers will use a mixed-methods approach that integrates validated psychometric assessments and ethnographic methods to examine whether and how the project succeeds in training "wicked scientists" and creating an institutional culture of convergence. The program assessment consists of four parts. First is the assessment of courses and course components and their effectiveness in training different core competencies. Second is an overall assessment of students’ core competencies after completion of the graduate interdisciplinary specialization. Third is a controlled comparison of core competencies of students enrolled in the program and those who are not. The final part is a study of the larger institutional context and how it affects student training and the program more broadly. The overarching hypothesis is that students who complete all the program components and participate in the community of practice will show improved competency development and higher scores across all program measures. These measures will include the four validated psychometric instruments compared to students who partially complete the training program or do not participate at all.The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.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.