Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century (2018) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 1-14
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From page 1... ...
However, continuous, dramatic innovations in research methods and technologies, changes in the nature and availability of work, shifts in demographics, and expansions in the scope of occupations needing STEM expertise raise questions about how well the current STEM graduate education system is meeting the full array of 21st-century needs. Indeed, recent surveys of employers and graduates and studies of graduate education suggest that many graduate programs do not adequately prepare students to translate their knowledge into impact in multiple careers.
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It also provides a listing of the committee's recommendations organized by stakeholder, to make clear what each must do to actualize the revised graduate STEM education system the committee envisions. 1 The committee was unable to explore graduate-level teaching practices in STEM in great detail during the course of this study as a result of the limited available research; however, the committee did consider the translation of undergraduate STEM education practices such as the Association of American Universities framework for effective STEM teaching at the undergraduate level.
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An ideal, student-centered STEM graduate education system would include several attributes that are currently lacking in many academic institutions. In an ideal STEM graduate education system: • Prospective graduate students would be able to select their graduate pro gram aided by fully transparent, easily accessible data about costs in curred and viable career pathways and successes of previous students, at the level of the institution and its departments.
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• Graduate programs would develop course offerings and other tools to en able student career exploration and to expose students to career options. Faculty advisors would encourage students to explore career options
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DRIVING CHANGE Seeing this vision come to fruition will require firm and commensurate commitments at all levels and from all stakeholders in the nation's STEM graduate education system. Academic institutions must provide faculty time, resources, and incentives to focus more on the totality of graduate student learning through the adoption of evidence-based teaching practices and to support the broad range of educational and career goals that students hold.
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Since so many STEM graduate students are supported through federal programs, the funding criteria for those programs present a unique opportunity to help shape the culture of graduate education throughout the country. Even in periods of extreme fiscal constraint, the federal government should recommit to making significant, coordinated investments in higher education and research, especially at the graduate level.
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Consistent with Vannevar Bush's recognition of science as the endless frontier, the nation will benefit fully from applying the power of STEM to the problems and opportunities of today and tomorrow. RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON REVITALIZING GRADUATE STEM EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY The committee's recommendations are summarized here and presented in the order in which the issues and goals are discussed in Chapters 3-5.
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In addition, to make appropriate future adjustments in the graduate education system, it is essential that comprehensive datasets about the system, its participants, and its outcomes be collected in a standard format, be fully transparent, and be easily accessible and transferable across multiple computer and statistical analysis platforms. • Federal and state funding agencies should require institutions that receive support for graduate education to develop policies mandating that these data be collected and made widely available to qualify for traineeships, fellowships, and research assistantships.
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RECOMMENDATION 3.5 -- Ensuring Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Environments: The graduate STEM education enterprise should enable students of all backgrounds, including but not limited to racial and ethnic background, gender, stage of life, culture, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and nationality, to succeed by implementing practices that create an equitable and inclusive institutional environment. • Faculty and administrators involved in graduate education should de velop, adopt, and regularly evaluate a suite of strategies to accelerate increasing diversity and improving equity and inclusion, including com prehensive recruitment, holistic review in admissions, and interventions to prevent attrition in the late stages of progress toward a degree.
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RECOMMENDATION 3.6 -- A Dynamic Graduate STEM Education System: The STEM education system should develop the capabilities to adjust dynamically to continuing changes in the nature of science and engineering activity and of STEM careers. This includes mechanisms to detect and anticipate such changes, experiment with innovative approaches, implement appropriate educational methods, and support institutional mechanisms on a larger scale.
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• Graduate departments should publicly post how their programs reflect the core competencies for master's students, including the milestones and metrics they use in evaluation and assessment. • Federal and state funding agencies should adapt funding criteria for in stitutions to ensure that all master's students they support -- regardless of mechanism of support -- are in programs that ensure that they develop, measure, and report student progress toward acquiring the scientific and professional competencies outlined in this report.
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• Institutions should integrate professional development opportunities, in cluding relevant course offerings and internships, into curriculum design. • Master's students should seek information about potential career paths, talk to employers and mentors in areas of interest, and choose a master's program optimal for gaining the knowledge and competencies needed to pursue their career interests.
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• Industry, nonprofit, government, and other employers should provide guidance and financial support for relevant course offerings at institutions and provide internships and other forms of professional experiences to students and recent graduates. • Federal and state agencies and private foundations that support gradu ate education should require STEM graduate programs to include career exploration urricular offerings and require STEM doctoral students to c create and to update annually individual development plans in consulta tion with faculty advisors to map educational goals, career exploration, and professional development.
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RECOMMENDATION 5.3 -- Structure of Doctoral Research Activities: Curricula and research projects, team projects, and dissertations should be designed to reflect the state of the art in the ways STEM research and education are conducted. • Universities, professional societies, and higher education associations should take the lead in establishing criteria and updating characteristics of the doctoral research project and dissertation preparation and format.
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