How Emerging Discipline-Based Education Researchers Perceive Their Growth from Professional Development

I present results from a qualitative study on Emerging Discipline-Based Education Researchers (EDBERs) and how they acquire and utilize research-specific skills. Participants are chosen from past participants in the Professional development for Emerging Education Researcher (PEER) Institute, which holds extended, intense professional development workshops to foster research project design. Participants, all at least one year out of PEER, were asked about specific PEER activities they found memorable and specific skills learned that they now utilize in their current research. Participants discussed generative writing, generating and refining research questions, choosing appropriate theoretical frameworks, and learning specific methodologies as key skills learned. Multiple participants also expressed a strong desire to attend a subsequent workshop, articulating both an opportunity to continue their development while at a new, more advanced, stage of their research and to having a well-structured time to conduct research.