Research in the Formation of Engineers

The NSF Engineering (ENG) Directorate has launched a multi-year initiative, the Professional Formation of Engineers, to create and support an innovative and inclusive engineering profession for the 21^st century. Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE) refers to the formal and informal processes and value systems by which people become engineers. It also includes the ethical responsibility of practicing engineers to sustain and grow the profession in order to improve quality of life for all peoples. The engineering profession must be responsive to national priorities, grand challenges, and dynamic workforce needs; it must be equally open and accessible to all.

Professional Formation of Engineers includes, but is not limited, to:

• Introductions to the profession at any age;
• Development of deep technical and professional skills, knowledge, and abilities in both formal and informal settings/domains;
• Development of outlooks, perspectives, ways of thinking, knowing, and doing;
• Development of identity as an engineer and its intersection with other identities; and
• Acculturation to the profession, its standards, and norms.

The goal of the Research in the Formation of Engineers (RFE) program is to advance our understanding of professional formation. It seeks both to deepen our fundamental understanding of the underlying processes and mechanisms that support professional formation and to demonstrate how professional formation is or can be accomplished. Ultimately RFE aims to transform the engineer-formation system, and thus the impact of proposed projects on this system must be described. Principal Investigators (PIs) should provide a roadmap detailing how they envision the proposed research will eventually broadly impact practice within the engineer-formation system, even if these activities are not within the scope of the submitted proposal.

In order to accomplish its goals, RFE welcomes proposals in two categories: Research Projects, and Design and Development Projects. Research Projects address fundamental questions of professional formation, while Design and Development Projects provide new approaches to achieving professional formation. Additional details are provided below. Projects in both categories should address the iterative cycle in which research questions that advance understanding are informed by practice and the results of research are, in turn, translated into practice. In other words, proposals should explain how the research results will travel, translate, transfer, or scale. Successful projects identify specific target audiences, effective communication channels, and novel partnerships to ensure effective propagation and scaling.

Research Projects

RFE supports Foundational and Early-Stage/Exploratory research (see https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf13126) in all areas of engineering education. In addition to proposals on undergraduate engineering education, proposals are particularly welcome in the following areas:

• Lifelong learning by the engineering workforce.
• Research on the impact of engineering education research. Proposals addressing this topic could investigate questions such as: How can we measure the impacts of engineering education research? What are effective strategies for scaling reforms? How can we translate knowledge from research to practice? What are the roles of networks and communities in achieving impact? RFE does not support efficacy, effectiveness, or scale-up studies for specific interventions.
• Research that addresses engineering formation at the two-year college and graduate education levels in both formal and informal settings. Included in this topic are investigations of identity formation, normative cultures of engineering and how these cultures may disadvantage certain groups, development of professional and technical skills, etc.
• Research that investigates engineering in K–12 settings. Research in this area could include understanding of approaches to engineering in K–12, how to develop engineering ways of thinking, or the relationship between practices within the sciences and mathematics and engineering thinking.
• Research on the transitions between education levels, e.g., from high school to two-year college, high school to four-year college/university, two-year college to four-year college/university, undergraduate to graduate school, education settings to the workforce or professoriate, etc.
• The relationship between engineering and the public. Proposals addressing this topic could consider the social impact of engineering solutions, citizen engineering, education of an informed public, etc.

Proposals submitted to the Research Projects category should have clear research questions informed by an appropriate theoretical framework and a research design that includes sampling, data collection, and data analysis methods. This category will not support proposals that seek funding primarily to develop tools, curriculum, or laboratories, or that seek to implement classroom innovations that have already been shown to be effective in engineering.

Design and Development Projects

RFE supports Design and Development projects (see https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf13126) that seek to develop and test new approaches in the following areas:

• Graduate education.
• Transitions between education levels, e.g. high school to two year college, high school to 4 year college/university, two year college to 4 year college/university, undergraduate to graduate school, education settings to the workforce or professoriate, etc.
• K12, especially approaches to develop engineering thinking, or providing links between engineering, science, and mathematics

Proposals in this category should propose the design and development of new approaches that are informed by existing literature and theory. There should be clear objectives and the evaluation plan should be designed to determine if those objectives have been met. Projects cannot be solely demonstration projects, but must add to the engineering education literature to inform future work.

Proposal Elements

Common elements of proposals for both categories are:

• The title must begin with either “Research:” or “Design and Development:” depending on which category the proposal is intended for
• All proposals must have an evaluation plan. Evaluation refers to monitoring of the research process to ensure that the project stays on track. The evaluation plan should include both formative and summative evaluation. An evaluator external to the PIs’ organization is not required, but the evaluator should not be an individual who is involved in the research activities. Potential evaluators include faculty with evaluation expertise at the PIs’ institution, an institutional evaluation office, or an advisory board of experts.
• All proposals must have a dissemination plan that goes beyond publishing research papers and presenting at research conferences. PIs should think creatively about who needs to hear about the research for it to have an impact, and develop a strategy to reach that audience.
• The Project Summary must contain a list of 3-5 keywords taken from the Engineering Education Taxonomy at http://taxonomy.engin.umich.edu/taxonomy/. At least one of the keywords must be from Section 12, Research Approaches. Keywords may be selected from any level of the taxonomy as appropriate to your project. Place the keywords on a separate line at the end of the Overview section of the Project Summary.