What Do We Know About Our Entering Students And How Does It Impact Upon Performance
What Do We Know About Our Entering Students And How Does It Impact Upon Performance
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我们对即将入学的学生了解多少以及它对表现有何影响
DOI：
10.18260/1-2--11829
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发表时间：
2003
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
H. Wolfe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
L. Shuman;M. Besterfield;D. Budny;Siripen Larpkiattaworn;Obinna S. Muogboh;Staci J. Provezis;H. Wolfe
除了他们的SAT平均分和高中排名之外，工程学院的教师和管理人员通常对他们即将入学的新生知之甚少。这种有限的知识阻碍了第一年课程的安排和内容。例如，有多少进入高中的学生学习微积分？学几个学期？他们的成绩是多少？他们的数学背景与他们的大学入学考试或大学分班考试有什么关系？他们保留了多少？他们在第一学期的数学课上表现如何？有多少学生学过三年或三年以上的外语？他们在大学里继续这样做吗？这能激励他们出国留学吗？在普通的大一学年，有多少学生选择了与他们最初申请时感兴趣的专业不同的专业？有了这些问题和类似问题的答案，教师和管理人员可以改变课程，提供建议和支持服务，以更好地支持学生的学习和成功。在匹兹堡大学工程学院，我们一直在通过各种调查工具、清单和分班考试收集有关新生态度、数学知识、学术历史、第一年学习成绩、留校率和一般背景的信息。这些数据保存在一个大型数据库中，这使我们能够轻松地提取特定信息以进行评估或监测。这使我们能够回答有关学生的问题，并利用这些信息制定更明智的课程和政策决策。我们在这里提供了一些例子，包括输入学生属性、语言和数学背景、部门选择和表现的信息。
Besides their average SAT scores and possibly their high school rank, engineering faculty and administrators typically know little about their entering freshmen. This limited knowledge hinders both placement in and content of first year courses. For example, how many entering students took calculus in high school? For how many semesters? What grades did they earn? How does their math background correlate with their college boards or college placement testing? How much have they retained? What was their performance in first semester math courses? How many students have had three or more years of foreign languages? Do they continue that in college? Does that motivate them to study abroad? Where there is a common freshman year, how many students select a different major program than the one they initially were interested in at the time of application? By having the answers to these and similar questions, faculty and administration may be able to change curriculum, advising and support services to better support student learning and success. At the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering we have been collecting such information about our incoming students’ attitudes, math knowledge, academic history, first year academic performance, retention, and general background through a variety of survey instruments, inventories and placement examinations. These data are maintained in a large database, which allows us to easily extract specific information for assessment or monitoring purposes. This enables us to answer questions about our students and use the information to make more informed curriculum and policy decisions. We present a number of examples here including information on entering student attributes, language and math background, departmental choice and performance.