Training Faculty to Teach Survival Skills and Ethics

Zigmond, Michael

Abstract

Most training programs in the sciences provide doctoral and postdoctoral trainees with a strong background in their discipline and the technical skills necessary for conducting research. Whereas this focus is appropriate, there are many other aspects of professional development that must be included in a training program if trainees are to be successful professionals. Those components of professional development include survival skills, such as the ability to communicate orally and in writing, to teach and mentor, to obtain grants, to find and maintain employment, and other essential aspects of professional life. They also include ethics, the ability to engage in responsible professional conduct and the ability to reason through ethical dilemmas, including dilemmas that can not yet be anticipated but may emerge with developing technologies. Despite its importance, instruction in survival skills and ethics is often inadequate. This may be particularly true for certain individuals who may have difficulty obtaining a full complement of mentors, either prior to, or during, their advanced training - e.g., women and members of under-represented minority groups. The objectives of this renewal grant are (1) to continue to disseminate via annual 5-day trainer-of-trainers workshops an educational model for providing formal instruction in survival skills and ethics; (2) to improve the quality of that program for trainers, (3) to develop additional curricular materials to be used by workshop alumni in the courses they will establish at their institution; (4) to provide workshop alumni with continuing assistance that will promote the sustainability of the courses implemented; and (5) to evaluate program effectiveness. Approximately 50 faculty members in the biological, behavioral, and biomedical sciences in the United States will be trained each year. Participants will be selected from qualified applicants based on their ability and motivation to establish a course in survival skills and ethics at their institution. Efforts will be made to promote diversity with regard to the demographics of both the workshop participants and those they serve. Instruction will be provided by the PI's together with a highly qualified group of trainers.