May 2014
Cindy
Gross
University of Minnesota School of Nursing
Minneapolis
,
MN
United States
Additionally, Dr. Gross built in class time for each of my classmates and myself to present on a subject pertinent to research in our fields.
Dr. Cynthia Gross is a Professor in both the School of Nursing and College of Pharmacy, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded researcher, and a research mentor to many. Dr. Gross taught my NURS 8173: Principles and Methods of Implementing Research course in 2012, and she exemplifies scholarship in practice. She embodied student-centered learning principles through careful design and teaching of her course, as she selected meaningful classroom activities and course assignments that greatly helped to prepare and propel us for future nursing and interdisciplinary health research and teaching.
Two of Dr. Gross’s course objectives were: “(a) develop a research proposal suitable for submission to nationally competitive review; and (b) be a peer reviewer: critically evaluate the significance, innovation, conceptual rationale, and implementation plans as presented in a research proposal.” Instead of turning us loose at the end of the semester to complete our final project after lecturing us for weeks about what makes a good grant proposal and how to provide peer review, Dr. Gross had scaffolded the grant writing process.
We first learned how specific aims pages of national grants are constructed, were advised to consult our advisors, committees, and colleagues for feedback on our proposed topics of interest, and put this knowledge in action by writing a Specific Aims page. Then, we presented our formal ideas and our aims to our classmates to give us the opportunity to practice constructive peer review our colleagues’ work. We revised our work based on peer feedback and submitted our aims to Dr. Gross. She then provided comprehensive and constructive feedback, encouraging us to grow and stretch our potential. Using this feedback, we revised our specific aims and were encouraged to take the aims page back to our advisors for further discussion. This assignment that Dr. Gross gave us resulted in written work, which formalized our discussions with our advisors, and thus, resulted in tangible steps toward dissertation decisions and aims.
Throughout her course, we learned about and practiced many research skills pertinent to our development (e.g., we developed and pilot-tested surveys with cognitive interviews). In addition, we continued to develop our grants, and with her expertise in grant writing, mentorship, class peer review, and encouragement to receive constructive feedback from our advisors, our grants came together. This process resulted in a resounding discourse among my classmates that always emphasized how the class was challenging but in a way that was positively instrumental in our growth and development.
At the end of the course, Dr. Gross purposefully sought out my advisor, Dr. F, and me; she encouraged minimal revisions and submission of my grant proposal for a National Research Science Award (NRSA) at the NIH. This increased my confidence in my abilities to submit an NRSA and spurred many conversations with Dr. F, which resulted in revisions and submission of my grant a few months later.
Given Dr. Gross’s dual professor appointments in pharmacy and nursing, our course was interdisciplinary, with both doctoral pharmacy and nursing students. This environment enhanced our learning experience; for example, as a nurse, I have a lens and a language with which I approach the world; having pharmacy students in the course allowed for interdisciplinary feedback and for collaboration.
Additionally, Dr. Gross built in class time for each of my classmates and myself to present on a subject pertinent to research in our fields. This allowed us to further develop our abilities to facilitate the class and contribute to our classmates’ learning, providing us mini-teaching opportunities to help prepare us for our futures as future faculty members.
The class has long been done now, but Dr. Gross’s door has remained open – the old adage says, “It takes a village to raise a child,” and I firmly believe this statement is true for graduate students as well, that “It takes a village to raise a graduate student.” It is really a gift to have Dr. Gross in my village. She provided both meaningful classroom activities and assignments to help prepare us for our futures and interdisciplinary scholarship opportunities and continues to be a mentor; she exemplified excellent scholarship in practice.
Two of Dr. Gross’s course objectives were: “(a) develop a research proposal suitable for submission to nationally competitive review; and (b) be a peer reviewer: critically evaluate the significance, innovation, conceptual rationale, and implementation plans as presented in a research proposal.” Instead of turning us loose at the end of the semester to complete our final project after lecturing us for weeks about what makes a good grant proposal and how to provide peer review, Dr. Gross had scaffolded the grant writing process.
We first learned how specific aims pages of national grants are constructed, were advised to consult our advisors, committees, and colleagues for feedback on our proposed topics of interest, and put this knowledge in action by writing a Specific Aims page. Then, we presented our formal ideas and our aims to our classmates to give us the opportunity to practice constructive peer review our colleagues’ work. We revised our work based on peer feedback and submitted our aims to Dr. Gross. She then provided comprehensive and constructive feedback, encouraging us to grow and stretch our potential. Using this feedback, we revised our specific aims and were encouraged to take the aims page back to our advisors for further discussion. This assignment that Dr. Gross gave us resulted in written work, which formalized our discussions with our advisors, and thus, resulted in tangible steps toward dissertation decisions and aims.
Throughout her course, we learned about and practiced many research skills pertinent to our development (e.g., we developed and pilot-tested surveys with cognitive interviews). In addition, we continued to develop our grants, and with her expertise in grant writing, mentorship, class peer review, and encouragement to receive constructive feedback from our advisors, our grants came together. This process resulted in a resounding discourse among my classmates that always emphasized how the class was challenging but in a way that was positively instrumental in our growth and development.
At the end of the course, Dr. Gross purposefully sought out my advisor, Dr. F, and me; she encouraged minimal revisions and submission of my grant proposal for a National Research Science Award (NRSA) at the NIH. This increased my confidence in my abilities to submit an NRSA and spurred many conversations with Dr. F, which resulted in revisions and submission of my grant a few months later.
Given Dr. Gross’s dual professor appointments in pharmacy and nursing, our course was interdisciplinary, with both doctoral pharmacy and nursing students. This environment enhanced our learning experience; for example, as a nurse, I have a lens and a language with which I approach the world; having pharmacy students in the course allowed for interdisciplinary feedback and for collaboration.
Additionally, Dr. Gross built in class time for each of my classmates and myself to present on a subject pertinent to research in our fields. This allowed us to further develop our abilities to facilitate the class and contribute to our classmates’ learning, providing us mini-teaching opportunities to help prepare us for our futures as future faculty members.
The class has long been done now, but Dr. Gross’s door has remained open – the old adage says, “It takes a village to raise a child,” and I firmly believe this statement is true for graduate students as well, that “It takes a village to raise a graduate student.” It is really a gift to have Dr. Gross in my village. She provided both meaningful classroom activities and assignments to help prepare us for our futures and interdisciplinary scholarship opportunities and continues to be a mentor; she exemplified excellent scholarship in practice.