This exploratory project investigates how engineering faculty learn to become engineering education researchers through mentoring relationships via the NSF-funded Research Initiation in Engineering Formation grants. Findings from this research are used to develop training materials and inform a networking event intended to pair engineering faculty interested in engineering education research with potential mentors at different institutions. Training engineering faculty in engineering education research expands the number of faculty adopting research-based instructional practices in their courses, and results in improved teaching, advising, programming, and policy-making by closing the research-to-practice gap.
While previous mentorship models have focused on the content of engineering education as a field, this work identifies effective strategies from successful mentoring relationships that incorporate the social and cultural components of becoming an engineering education researcher. By conducting qualitative interviews of engineering faculty and engineering education researchers mentee-mentor pairs, the study the study develops a conceptual model of the formation of engineering education researchers' identity. This model clarifies how researchers undergo a paradigm shift and potential career pivot to expand their expertise in a related, but distinct, discipline of engineering education. This novel approach provides important information to enhance existing training materials and to develop additional training opportunities for engineering faculty who are interested in conducting engineering education research. Additionally, the model has implications for understanding job retraining and approaches for engaging faculty in lifelong learning.
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.
