Learning as Problem Solving

卡内基梅隆大学被选为美国国家科学基金会“研究与教育一体化表彰奖”的十名获奖者之一。该大学将跨学科解决问题作为本科课程的核心活动，并创建了许多支持全校实施的机制。卓越教学中心和学习创新中心鼓励和支持教师努力将解决问题作为学习的工具。除了以课程为基础的问题解决，越来越多的学生通过正规课程、带薪勤工俭学、高级荣誉课程、实习和独立学习，在整个本科生涯中进行独立研究。该大学为本科生研究项目提供了大量支持，并组织了一次学生研究研讨会，最近有200个学生研究项目在研讨会上发表。该大学在整合研究和教育方面所做的努力是为了实现具体的成果：提高科学和工程专业的学生保留率；增加从事自主研究的学生比例；提高学生对理工科教育的满意度；提高毕业生的工作能力。该大学在实现这些目标方面取得了重大成功。该大学将获得50万美元的奖励，目标是在未来三年内扩大、记录和传播其示范性实践。奖励资金的使用计划包括：建立新生研讨会，向学生介绍跨学科解决问题的文化；扩大对本科生科研项目的支持；聘请研究生为本科生的研究导师；开发跨学科解决问题的新课程；开发以结果为基础的评估工具，以评估以解决问题为核心活动的新课程；开发和记录可输出的跨学科解决问题的教学模式；并通过研讨会、会议、手册和万维网提供的资源传播该模式。

Carnegie-Mellon University has been selected as one of ten recipients of the National Science Foundation's Recognition Awards for the Integration of Research and Education. The university has made cross-disciplinary problem-solving a core activity in the undergraduate curriculum and has created many mechanisms that support institution-wide implementation. A Center for Teaching Excellence and a Center for Innovation in Learning encourage and support faculty efforts to use problem solving as a vehicle for learning. In addition to course-based problem solving, an increasing number of students pursue independent research throughout their undergraduate careers through formal courses, paid work-study, senior honors programs, internships, and independent study. The university provides significant support for undergraduate research projects and organizes a student research symposium at which 200 student projects were recently presented. The university's efforts to integrate research and education were designed with specific outcomes in mind: increasing student retention in science and engineering programs; increasing the proportion of students engaged in independent research; increasing student satisfaction with their science and engineering education; and enhancing the capabilities of graduates in the workplace. The university has documented significant success in achieving these goals. The university is being awarded $500,000 with the goal of expanding, documenting, and disseminating its exemplary practices over the coming three years. Plans for the use of the award funds include: establishing a freshman seminar that introduces students to the culture of interdisciplinary problem solving; expanding support for the undergraduate research program; engaging graduate students as research mentors for undergraduates; developing new courses that use interdisciplinary problem solving; developing outcome-based assessment tools for evaluating new courses using problem solving as a core activity; developing and documenting an exportable model for teaching through interdisciplinary problem solving; and disseminating the model through workshops, conferences, a handbook, and resources made available through the World Wide Web.