Board 103: EAGER: Barriers to Participation in Intensive Professional Development Opportunities
- Conference
- Location
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Tampa, Florida
- Publication Date
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June 15, 2019
- Start Date
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June 15, 2019
- End Date
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June 19, 2019
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topic
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NSF Grantees Poster Session
- Page Count
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13
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--32171
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/32171
- Download Count
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399
Paper Authors
Stephanie Jarek University of Tennessee
Rachel McCord Ellestad
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
orcid.org/0000-0001-5163-7675
Rachel McCord is a a Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor in the Engineering Fundamentals Division at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She received her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. Her research interests include the impact of metacognitive and self-regulated learning development on engineering student success, particularly in the first year.
Cory Hixson Colorado Christian University
After earning my B.S. in Engineering Science at Penn State University (2007), I began working as an audio-video engineer/designer. I then made a career transition to teach high school physics. Having sparked my love for education, I went back to school to earn my M.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering (2015) and my Ph.D. in Engineering Education (2016). My first faculty job was at Rowan University in southern New Jersey, where I had the honor of helping develop their first-year engineering and B.S. in Engineering Entrepreneurship programs. I’m now blessed to be at CCU contributing to what God's doing through our Industrial & Systems Engineering program and university.
Ella Lee Ingram Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Ella L. Ingram is the Associate Dean for Professional Development and a Professor of Biology at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Her educational research interests include promoting successful change practice of STEM faculty, effective evolution and ecology instruction, and facilitating undergraduate research experiences. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on: nutrition, introductory biology, ecology and environmental studies, evolution, evolutionary medicine, and research practices in science.
Julia M. Williams Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Dr. Julia M. Williams is Interim Dean of Cross-Cutting Programs and Emerging Opportunities and Professor of English at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Her research areas include technical communication, assessment, accreditation, and the development of change management strategies for faculty and staff. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Engineering Education, International Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, and Technical Communication Quarterly, among others.
Abstract
The Rising Engineering Education Faculty Experience program (REEFE) is a professional development program that connects graduate students in engineering education with faculty members at teaching-focused institutions. The program goal is to simultaneously support faculty growth in engineering education and graduate student growth as academic change agents. Our program has transitioned from a partnership between one engineering education graduate program and one engineering institution to a consortium of engineering education graduate programs that sends students to multiple institutions across the country. The REEFE Consortium also developed a unique partnership with the Making Academic Change Happen initiative to offer continuous training to graduate students during their REEFE experience.
Many positive outcomes have come from the development of the REEFE Consortium, including better graduate training in research at the coordinating institution, a better understanding of program logistics, and new and strengthened professional relationships. We discovered a number of challenges associated with providing intensive professional development opportunities to graduate students, including timing of experiences relative to degree progress, loss of connection to the home research community, and financial impact, especially as it relates to travel and housing.
While a search of existing literature in professional development in higher education has provided best practices for existing programs, there is little to no available research highlighting barriers that exist to offering different types of professional development opportunities to graduate student populations. These barriers are important to highlight as they provide critical information needed in the design and decision making for those seeking to create useful professional development opportunities for graduate populations.
This paper provides an updated description of the Rising Engineering Education Faculty Experience program as we attempt to scale the program. We summarize the existing literature on barriers to participation in professional development opportunities for graduate students. Finally, we describe how REEFE both addresses and fails to address these barriers.
Jarek, S., & Ellestad, R. M., & Hixson, C., & Ingram, E. L., & Williams, J. M. (2019, June), Board 103: EAGER: Barriers to Participation in Intensive Professional Development Opportunities Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32171
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