overarchingthemes identified across all responses include a struggle to keep track of responsibilities in manyareas (typically classes, research, and personal needs), transitioning from student life toadulthood or feeling “stuck” between student life and adulthood, problematic cultures of stress indepartments or in engineering as a field, and a need to dissociate/disconnect from academicresponsibilities in order to feel relaxed (referencing anything from time with friends to alcohol).These trends were additionally examined by stress level (low/moderate/high). Results indicatethat graduate students with low levels of stress tend to practice self-reflection and disconnectionfrom their academic responsibilities to relax, while students with higher stress
. Wepresent a view of CR as a set of structured flows of feedback among researchers and betweenresearchers and others in and beyond academic institutions. In contrast to recent scholarship on CR, we propose a framework of CR that considers theemergence of systems from such feedback flows—not vice versa. Some of these flows stabilizethe process of CR inquiry, while others destabilize. The stabilizing feedback flow is crucial toproducing actual impact in the world—a research output needs some kind of stability to beproduced. The destabilizing feedback flow offers questions to reflect on the framing of theresearch problem. In doing so, it opens up a space to think outside of conventional boundaries ofdisciplinary science. These two types of flows
other subjective measures like letters of recommendation and interviewsfor the admission process as the GRE quantitative score only measures a student’s ability whichaccounts for a fraction of graduate school success determinants. Rockinson-Szapkiw, Bray Jr,and Spaulding [6] in their study on the GRE score predictive validity in doctoral education alsodiscovered the GRE writing score to be a strong predictor for graduate students’ dissertationcompletion time.While these studies focused on various components of the GRE, evaluating their validity inpredicting factors postulated to reflect graduate school success, a more recent study by Newmanet al. [7] assessed issues with the GRE considering fairness for all demographic of applicants.They
, enhanced teamwork and sustainedprofessional development.The professional identity of doctoral students is defined by their acknowledgment andrecognition of their major through rigorous study, research, and practical applicationof their academic disciplines. Furthermore, it reflects their eagerness to proactivelyadhere to professional and occupational norms, and to pursue this career as a personallifelong goal.[11,12] Identity in the field of engineering education also focuses on theoverall process of an individual's transformation from an "outsider" to a community inthe field of engineering, such as awareness and perception of the content ofspecialized knowledge in engineering, the significance of the profession, thecharacteristics of the
showcase might reflect elements ofservingness. The multidimensional conceptual framework of servingness includes both indicatorsof serving and structures for serving. Specifically, we asked (1) how relevant is the servingnessframework to materials designed for a graduate program recruitment process; and (2) whatadaptations may be necessary to allow for this framework’s application to the graduate programrecruitment process context? We employed framework analysis to identify which, if any,elements of the servingness framework were represented in the showcase presentation. Aftercompleting content analysis of the institutional slides and thematic analysis of the programpresentations, we conducted focus groups with graduate program leaders to receive
research;and developing leadership, communication, and professional competencies. After two years ofdevelopment and implementation, we are also able to discuss lessons learned and strategies forscaling the model. We present findings from students in the program and a reflective interview ofthe project leadership team. In order to adopt this innovative education model, students, faculty,and universities need understanding of career pathways and opportunities beyond traditionalacademic pursuits.IntroductionWe formed the Pathways to Entrepreneurship (PAtENT) graduate education model to addressthe need to develop and train advanced engineering students in the art of entrepreneurship.Workforce estimates show that only 10% of doctoral graduates in STEM
communities in the United StatesAbstractThis paper shares and compares the experiences of initiating and sustaining two graduatestudent-led international ethnic engineering education scholarly communities for Chinese andAfrican groups. Our goal is to reflect on our lived experiences and inspire future students andacademics to cultivate such communities to broaden participation and enhance researchcapability. We adopt the Community of Practice (CoP) as the theoretical framework and opt forcomparative ethnographic narrative analysis as the method in this paper. Specifically, we focusedon the following dimensions of two communities led by the two authors: (1) the origin andpurpose; (2) the characteristics; and (3) practices. Our findings suggest that
transform STEM education can be implementation of an inquiry-basedcollaborative approach. The inquiry-based collaborative approach can impact and prepare STEMgraduates for the future workforce following the required high level of critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. This innovative approach also can help STEM graduatesdevelop required collaborative and communicative skills while working as part of any team.The inquiry-based collaborative approach has recently received recognition when themetacognitive approach has been implemented into the design of online, hybrid and face-to-facelearning to support the dynamics of reflective thinking and a collaborative inquiry process [2].Metacognition is a required cognitive ability to
Engineering Industry Career Pathways AbstractThis research aimed to better understand how engineering graduate students entering industry orgovernment careers feel prepared from a skills development perspective. We sought tounderstand this alignment between graduate education and industry or government positionsfrom two perspectives: 1) experienced engineering professionals who hire new engineeringgraduate degree holders, and 2) new engineering graduate degree holders in their new roleswithin the past few years. Our paper reports on findings from five interviews conducted withexperienced structural engineering professionals with over 20 years of experience as well aseight interviews with recent alumni of graduate programs who reflected on how their
and facultyoutside their home departments.In the 2024 pilot program, the MRSEC funded 10 graduate students from nine differentdepartments. Participant input during a mid-program feedback session highlighted programsuccesses and suggestions for improvement that were used to shape the remainder of theprogram. Data collection also included a post-program feedback session, and a post-programsurvey designed to elicit students’ reflections on the utility of program activities related to theircurrent graduate experiences. FF participant feedback highlighted how useful students found theextra time to start research, professional development sessions, extra time to adjust to campuslife, and the opportunity to connect with their FF cohort. Student
courses,and a short description of these courses can be found on our university Graduate School website[9].For students’ professional development, the NRT offered a seminar series in the fall and springsemesters, which included eight sessions (twice a month) each semester. NRT Seminar is a 0-credit hour seminar that has been offered on a Credit/No Credit basis. Students completed up tofour semesters of NRT Seminar. The NRT Seminar consisted of training sessions related toinclusion, career pathways, campus resources, skill development to communicate acrossdisciplines and to diverse audiences, and exposure to FEW research initiatives. Internal orexternal guest speakers gave talks during seminar. Students completed a reflection activity aftereach
findings highlight thepotential interdisciplinary education in fostering innovation and cognitive growth while alsoemphasizing the importance of refined classification criteria in future research to better captureinterdisciplinary influences.1 Introduction Innovation is a critical skill for addressing the complex challenges of the global economy.Higher education institutions can foster innovation by developing students and graduates intoinnovators who address complex problems and generate novel and contextual ideas throughintentional educational practices e.g.,[1],[2]. Reflecting those potentials, in recent years theNational Science Foundation (NSF) has funded several interdisciplinary training programs aimedat preparing undergraduate
integrates culturally reflective mentoring and professional development specificallydesigned for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous Ph.D. students. This holistic graduate studentdevelopment model includes academic and professional skill-building for STEM careersalongside targeted support for pursuing fellowship opportunities, including the NSF GraduateResearch Fellowship.The theoretical framework for our model is based on social cognitive career theory (Lent et al.,1986). This is foundational to our program because it builds on the idea that the higher theperceived self-efficacy to fulfill educational requirements and occupational roles, the wider thecareer options people will seriously consider pursuing (Lent et al., 2004; Lent et al., 2010). Thegreater
discussed their experiences and best practicesaround the topic of discussion. Circle topics included finding balance in graduate school,building resilience through self-reflection, advisor relationships, and self-advocacy. Resourcessuch as goal setting and tracking journals, books on mentoring and community building, andonline resources on building mentoring relationships and thriving in graduate school weredistributed during these workshops and group mentoring sessions. Mentors and menteesgenerated a list of potential discussion topics to use during the mentoring circles for the secondcycle.Data collection and analysisIn the first cycle, at the kick-off workshop, we collected data from mentors on potential areas ofmentee support based on the
reality under investigation, we, theresearchers, identified a telling consensus across their interviews. Participants illuminatedunrelenting reflections about their programs and “what does it mean” to offer one that is ofquality and how even answers to these questions may exist only “at that time” since they werelikely to change. Finally, there were other key quotes that found participants examining how theyused program goals and outcomes “to assess the[ir] program” and change them accordingly ifthey were not “working so well.” After three stages of (descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual)analysis, authors present a singular superordinate theme The Role of Assessment in Eng Ed PhDProgram Quality. Implications of this study are applicable to
and safe working conditions being ahot-button issue in graduate education for decades, nowhere in engineering education research isit discussed [15]. Should research in our field align itself more with the university than thepopulations being studied? How should we be studying doctoral engineering students? Whatproblems should we be highlighting?The Role of Doctoral Engineering StudentsTo decide what direction work in the field should take, we must first understand what roles andresponsibilities doctoral engineering students have at their universities.As existing literature and legislation reflect, the doctoral engineering student has long existed inan ambiguous space [15], [16]. Universities do not consistently classify them as either staff
reflect on their experiences as engineering studentsamidst the evolving COVID-19 crisis. Sensemaking is a research approach used to understandcomplex and ambiguous data such as narratives (Van der Merwe et al., 2019)Between June and July 2020, a pool of 500 micro-narratives was amassed from underrepresentedengineering students. Participants in this research were asked to respond to the followingprompt:“Imagine you are chatting with a friend or family member about the evolving COVID-19 crisis. Tell themabout something you have experienced recently as an engineering student.” The SenseMaker tool uses mixedmethods analysis to allow participants to use quantitative responses to reflect on their micro-narratives. The process of utilizing this data
Engagement and Practices examines how mentors guideddoctoral students during their pre-program internships, advising and/or residencies andsupporting them after they returned to academia. The subtheme During the Pre-programInternship or Residency reflects mentors’ efforts to provide students with hands-on learningexperiences that bridged the gap between academia and industry. One mentor explained,"Because I think part of what the student wants is to see how to apply their research in a real-world environment, so we worked closely to ensure that." This quote underscores theintentionality of mentoring efforts to contextualize academic research within practical, industry-relevant settings. By working “closely,” mentors offered opportunities for
further streamline task management, Microsoft Planner was introduced, leveraging itsKanban board system for centralized and visual organization of tasks. The Kanban boardfacilitates the tracking of tasks at different stages, including Backlog, To Do, In Progress, andCompleted. Kanban benefits student teams by “making the work visible, especially seeing work-in-progress bottlenecks…making the work visible helped the teams create improved teamknowledge [6].” The Kanban board reflects the assignment of responsibilities and theestablishment of deadlines. This enhances transparency and improves the team’s ability to stayinformed about ongoing progress.Challenges (RQ2)It eventually became evident that while the Kanban system worked well for broader
voluntary convenience samplesurvey. Over 2,000 respondents from 26 countries and 234 institutions responded, revealing anoverwhelming mental health crisis in the graduate student population [9], [10]. They reportelevated rates of anxiety (41%) and depression (39%) in the sampled community, suggesting thatgraduate students are six times as likely to experience depression and anxiety compared to thegeneral public. Likewise, students have not been passive in their dissatisfaction with the state ofthe academy. In recent years, student labor organizing [11], labor strikes, and general protestmovements have become common reflecting the general themes of modern politics including themultiple epidemics of sexual harassment [12], [13], racism [14], [15
; for example, Chen et. al. states that “[s]tudents from all backgrounds may find theexperience [of an unexpectedly poor academic performance] threatening to their competence, butstudents from minority groups must also contend with anxiety that this performance ‘confirms’negative academic stereotypes attributed to their group memberships”[10].Often, these biases and stereotypes reflect an automatic judgment without an awareness ofindividuals’ specific abilities or experiences [11] [12]. Thus, the format of assessment, rather thanthe rigor, quality, or intended learning can have undue effect on educational outcomes. Forexample, IGEN performed a case study on a top-ranked physics program which noticed its“passage rate [for a qualifying exam] had
near-peer mentoring between graduate students and undergraduate transfer students in engineering and computingIntroduction Mentoring is a practice in which a student, or mentee, and a more experienced individual,a mentor, engage in a relationship that includes advising or instructing by the mentor to thementee. This type of relationship can be seen throughout academia and is commonly foundbetween staff members and students. The concept of near-peer mentoring reflects the ideas andgoals of traditional mentorship but is formed between individuals who are at similar experiencelevels, personally or professionally, where the mentor and mentee relate to one another due tosimilar age proximity, shared goals, common experiences, or
ofeducational session is to provide a framework to conduct socially engaged engineering anddesign, providing students with opportunities to actively try out a set of tools and practices thatwill support their design decisions and the generation of engineering solutions.The second type of content the center offers is anchored in a case study initiative, which partnerswith engineering instructors to develop original case studies highlighting the importance ofsocially engaged engineering processes and the impacts of engineering work on society. The goalof the case studies is to present realistic and immersive microhistorical scenarios that encouragestudents to engage deeply with the nuances of challenges faced by engineers and reflect onlessons from past
about their advising format and perceptions on research related activities Time Management Aspects of work and time distribution of tasks Support Systems Ranking possible support systems and, if relevant, support they may get from their research environment Advisor Relationship Items related to a graduate student – advisor relationship Mental Health Reflecting on possible experiences and norms as a graduate student that are related to their mental health experiences Post-Graduation Post-graduation degree intentionsFirst, Bork conducted seven individual, one-hour cognitive interviews with engineering graduatestudents [23
value is similarly reflected here with theprogramming for faculty and graduate students. Further, explicitly linking engineering designprinciples and pedagogical approaches, including the practice of teaching and learning, providesadded value in both theory and implementation [38].Novelty of Alignment and Professional Development Curriculum MappingAs a second specific point of novelty, this programming also maps onto and aligns with theprofessional development learning outcomes for more comprehensive faculty programmingaround broadly inclusive teaching. While several institutions have recently implementedinclusive teaching programs for graduate students, such as the Inclusive Course Design Instituteat the University of Texas that teaches
interactions with peers and faculty withinthe first 10 weeks (about 2 and a half months) of graduate school reduced the impact of stress,both physically and psychologically, for the next 6 months [7]. Overall, we know that at least40% of all doctoral students do not complete their programs, and much of this attrition could beprevented and is not reflective of student capability [8].Simultaneously, doctoral degrees awarded in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics(STEM) continue to be disproportionately awarded to white students. In the 2019-20 academicyear, 71.3% of all STEM doctoral degrees awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residentswere awarded to white students, even though the U.S. population is approximately 59.3% white.Only 4.3
reinforcing cross-cutting concepts within the program. Forexample, the course design institute offers a distinct moment to invoke questions about powerdynamics via the situational factor of instructors. In other words, the context created by having aparticular instructor, that instructor’s perspectives, identities, lived experiences, relation to thecourse material, and so forth, will inextricably inform the course as a product and how it isexperienced by students and therefore should be its own design constraint[15]. Thus, programco-instructors are asked to reflect on their own roles in the course during course design sessions.During the cohort meetings after course design, they also reflect on their interactions andapproaches to collaboration and
departmental community. In this framework, CoP ischaracterized by constant knowledge generation, application, and reproduction, highlighting thedynamic nature of engagement.Within this framework, the diverse adoption of mentoring tools reflects the autonomy of individualfaculty members as distinct nodes in the advising network. There are no formal requirementsconcerning doctoral student mentoring to support graduate advising and faculty members are freeto adopt tools (or not) that they perceive to be most appropriate or work best. However, the CIMERprogram allows faculty members in the department to receive training to train others, it is throughthis initiative that other faculty in the more peripheral mode of participation get to learn fromtrained
participants' narratives. Preliminary observationsand reflections were noted at this stage. During coding, data were read line by line, highlighting key phrases, ideas, and concepts.These were organized as initial codes, which were meaningful segments of data that capturedspecific aspects of participants' responses. In the theme development stage, codes that expressed similar ideas were grouped intobroader, overarching themes. These themes represented generalized patterns in the data andhighlighted key aspects of the participants' experiences. Some identified themes included stress,coping strategies, and cultural adaptation. The final stage, refinement, consisted of an overall review of the themes about theaccuracy of the dataset
helping the research goals of a sponsor or the teaching needs ofthe university. Of course, these three sets of goals are not mutually exclusive. The P3 modelattempts to coordinate what is best for the student while assuring that the support system alsobenefits sufficiently to provide resources for the student’s training.The third consideration for designing the P3 model reflects changes in the employment sectors,which would determine realization of students’ career plans. The data in Fig. 2 show growth ofcareers in industry at the expense of academe. The absolute numbers as well as change in demandin favor of industry are particularly strong in STEM fields, most notably in engineering andphysical+earth sciences; mathematics+computer sciences and