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

培训科学家通过跨学科团队的一致行动来解决重大社会问题

• 批准号: 2224769
• 负责人: Mark Moritz
• 金额: $ 49.97万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2224769&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Training; Scientists; Tackle; Grand; Challenge

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.

人类面临的一些问题是如此艰巨，以至于几乎无法解决。这些巨大的挑战包括全球气候变化，粮食不安全，社会经济不平等，克服系统性的种族不平等以及新兴的感染。学者之所以标记这些“邪恶的问题”，是因为它们高度复杂，并以利益相关者在其原因和可能的解决方案上的基本分歧为标志。然而，社会最需要解决的是这些问题。俄亥俄州立大学的NSF研究生教育奖（IGE）奖将进行试验，测试和验证一个创新的项目，该项目培训研究生成为“邪恶”的科学家，他们可以在跨学科团队中有效工作，以解决这些问题的复杂性，不确定性和冲突性质。为了有效地，研究生需要成为各自领域的专家。但是，他们还需要发展跨学科技能，以成功与研究人员和其他利益相关者合作。该项目使用“邪恶科学”的全面综合概念框架来进行试验，测试和验证这种培训。研究计划将采用由三个课程和电子港口组成的跨学科研究生未成年人的形式。这种方法包括开发一个由学生，校友，教师和其他培养长期专业学习的利益相关者组成的实践社区。培训计划的教训将被组织和传播，以便在美国及其他地区的其他高等教育机构可以轻松地采用它们。研究人员将使用一种混合方法的方法来整合经过验证的心理测量评估和人种学方法，以研究该项目是否成功地培训“邪恶科学家”和建立convertectional的机构文化。该计划评估包括四个部分。首先是对课程和课程组件的评估及其在培训不同核心能力方面的有效性。第二是研究生跨学科专业化后对学生的核心能力进行的整体评估。第三是对参加该计划的学生的核心竞争能力的控制比较。最后一部分是对较大的机构背景的研究，以及它如何影响学生培训和计划。总体假设是，完成所有计划组成部分并参与实践社区的学生将在所有计划测量中表现出提高的能力发展和更高的分数。与部分完成培训计划或根本没有参加的学生相比，这些措施将包括四种经过验证的心理学工具。研究生教育（IGE）计划的创新侧重于研究生教育研究。 IGE的目标是试点，测试和验证创新方法来研究生教育，并产生将这些方法转移到广播员社区所需的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准通过评估来评估的。