2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Attributes of Research Mindset for Early Career Engineering Researchers

Presented at Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 8: Professional Development for Graduate Students

Mindset refers to a set of beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions that individuals hold about themselves and the world around them. The literature exploring mindsets suggests the existence of many mindsets relating to the performance of different tasks. Research is one such task or set of tasks undertaken by scholars that requires a mindset to perform research activities. Understanding research mindset is important because researchers are at the center of the research process. The term research mindset is used in the extant literature, but no theoretical base for the usage of this term has been established. The following work-in-progress study is a first attempt to understand the attributes of the research mindset among engineering doctoral researchers. Interviews were conducted with seven early career engineering researchers. Initial findings suggest that research mindset is comprised of six attributes: (1) open-mindedness, (2) believing in oneself and the research, (3) persistence, (4) honesty, (5) being critical, and (6) a writing mindset. The findings from this study provide a foundation for further explorations of research mindset.

Authors

Mr. Sanjeev M Kavale http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3338-8526 Arizona State University [biography]

Sanjeev Kavale is currently a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education Systems and Design (EESD) at Arizona State University (ASU). His research interests are mindsets and their applicability in engineering, outcomes-based education, and problem / project-based learning. He is having a teaching experience of 11 years and an industry experience of 2 years prior to joining PhD.
Dr. Adam R. Carberry http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-7060 Arizona State University [biography]

Dr. Adam R. Carberry is Professor and Chair in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University (OSU). He earned a B.S. in Materials Science Engineering from Alfred University, and received his M.S. and Ph.D., both from Tufts University, in Chemistry and Engineering Education respectively. He recently joined OSU after having served as an Associate Professor in The Polytechnic School within Arizona State University’s Fulton Schools of Engineering (FSE) where he was the Graduate Program Chair for the Engineering Education Systems & Design (EESD) Ph.D. Program. He is currently a Deputy Editor for the Journal of Engineering Education and co-maintains the Engineering Education Community Resource wiki. Additional career highlights include serving as Chair of the Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN), visiting École Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Rabat, Morocco as a Fulbright Specialist, receiving an FSE Top 5% Teaching Award, receiving an ASEE Educational Research and Methods Division Apprentice Faculty Award, receiving a Frontiers in Education New Faculty Award, and being named an ASEE Fellow.

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