Summary: “Navigating scientific challenges, persevering through difficulties and coping with failures are hallmarks of a successful scientist”. Identifying oneself as a scientist stems from a sense of belonging to the field. This sense of belonging helps in building a persons professional identity i.e how we perceive ourselves within our occupational context and how we communicate this to others. This professional identity of a person affects one’s persistence in a particular field or profession. Identity crisis with respect to one’s profession has been identified as a major problem faced by students in various research studies. (McLean 2013, Ruz 2018, Kuchynka 2019, Nadelson 2015, Estrada et al 2019). 

Summary: It is important to understand PI and the development of PI (PID) within the context of a discipline. Working towards this goal, We have done 

i)  A systematic review of the literature on PI and its development in biosciences 

ii) Designed and developed a prototype learning environment to address certain aspects of PI like sense of responsibility towards a profession

iii) Conducted a study to investigate students' sense making and reasoning process while solving a problem in a professional context. 

Summary: 

i) Review article : Professional identity development in biosciences: A systematic review of the literature

ii) Design and development of Karyotype:  LE for sense making and reasoning 

iii) Pilot study (N=26) to investigate students' sense making and reasoning process while solving a problem in a professional context. 

iv) Research study (N=68) to investigate the relationship between students’ self efficacy and their performance on reasoning & sensemaking tasks. 

Summary: 

i) DBR Cycle 2- Development of Karyotype LE (flow.opencurriculum.org/app/karyotype)

ii) Pilot study 2 (N=11)

iii) Publishing research findings (2 conference publications, 1 Journal publication WIP)