Pilot Study of Professional Development Relationship Building Knowledge Transfer in STEM Teams

The NSF ECR Building Capacity of STEM Education Research (BCSER) program contributes to the NSF mission by building the US workforce undertaking STEM education research. The BCSER Individual Investigator Development in STEM Education Research (IID) track supports individual investigators who are new to STEM education research to develop foundational skills and gain practical experience to advance STEM education knowledge through mentored professional development and pilot research activities. STEM education research generates the knowledge, theories, and understandings on which viable strategies for improving STEM education and workforce outcomes are based. This project will investigate how members of STEM-related teams build relationships through transfer of knowledge and practices from various professional development experiences. The findings of this project can impact the training and development of STEM teams in school settings, academia and industry This BCSER IID project will allow the PI to develop foundational skills and gain practical experience in designing and implementing cutting edge STEM education research using innovative methods and tools. The project will assist the PI to develop new expertise in qualitative research methods. The PI will work with a mentoring team with expertise in research teams, and qualitative methods. More specifically the PI will engage in training on qualitative interviewing, build knowledge on relations theory and learning transfer through reading and discussions and enroll in courses on qualitative methodology. The project will investigate how individuals within teams utilize prior professional development experiences to promote effective teamwork and how team members serve as boundary spanners in building team relationships. The findings will be shared through the facilitation of professional development workshops with STEM teams, presentations of various STEM-related conferences across multiple disciplines and higher education media outlets. The success of this project will be assessed through structured interactions with an external advisory board for formative and summative feedback. 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.