Exploring Connections between Engineering Projects, Student Characteristics, and the Ways Engineering Students Experience Innovation
Exploring Connections between Engineering Projects, Student Characteristics, and the Ways Engineering Students Experience Innovation
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探索工程项目、学生特征以及工程学生体验创新的方式之间的联系
DOI：
10.18260/1-2--28326
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发表时间：
2017
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Ş. Purzer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
N. Fila;Ş. Purzer
创新是工程学中的一项关键能力。长期以来，研究人员和教育工作者一直在探索创新者的过程、属性和环境，目的是支持工科学生发展创新所需的能力。然而，创新是一个复杂的现象，有许多潜在的路径。在最近对工科学生进行的一项现象学研究中，我们发现了体验创新的八种不同方式。虽然这些体验创新的不同方式不一定是更好或更差，但可以从它们的全面性方面进行比较，特别是在创新过程和推动创新的问题(例如，技术、用户或业务)方面。在本研究中，我们采用两个阶段的定性分析来了解工科学生的个体特征和他们遇到创新的工程项目的情境特征是如何交织在一起的，从而影响他们在先前研究的八个类别中的一个体验到创新。在第一阶段，我们使用内容分析来分类不同的个人和项目特征，并探索八个类别中每一个参与者之间的相似性。在第二阶段，我们使用主题分析在更一般的层面上描述个体参与者如何以更全面的方式体验创新。内容分析表明，由于个人和项目特征之间的细微联系，个人可能被吸引到特定类别，而专题分析展示了三种通向更全面类别的一般途径，包括(1)创新项目经验的全面性，(2)项目目标与个人兴趣和价值观之间的联系，以及(3)当前视角和创新经验之间的尖锐或持续的紧张关系。我们深入讨论了这些结果，并描述了对教学和学习工程创新的启示。
Innovation is a key competency in engineering. Researchers and educators have long explored the processes, attributes, and environments of innovators with an aim to support engineering students in developing the competencies necessary to innovate. Yet, innovation is a complex phenomenon with many potential paths. In a recent phenomenographic study of engineering students, we found eight distinct ways of experiencing innovation. While these different ways of experiencing innovation were not necessarily better or worse, they could be compared in terms of their comprehensiveness, especially with respect to the innovation process and the issues (e.g., technical, user, or business) that drove innovation. In this study, we performed a two-phase qualitative analysis to understand how individual characteristics of the engineering students and contextual characteristics of the engineering projects in which they encountered innovation intersected to influence them to experience innovation in one of the eight categories described in the earlier study. In the first phase, we used content analysis to catalog distinct individual and project characteristics and explore similarities among participants in each of the eight categories. In the second phase, we used thematic analysis to describe, at a more general level, how individual participants came to experience innovation in more comprehensive ways. Content analysis showed that individuals may be drawn to specific categories due to nuanced connections between individual and project characteristics, while thematic analysis demonstrated three general pathways to more comprehensive categories, including (1) comprehensiveness of the innovation project experience, (2) connections between project goals and an individuals’ interests and values, and (3) acute or persistent tensions between current perspectives and innovation experiences. We discuss these results in depth and describe implications for teaching and learning engineering innovation.