Application of Hierarchical Cognitive Model to Education of Undergraduate Engineering Students

工程-化学（53）我们在这个项目中解决的问题是：如何在工程本科生进入大四之前培养他们的批判性思维能力和工程判断力？我们采用的假设，心理成长构成了一个通过认知层次的进展，工程师所需的批判性思维位于较高的层次，并达到高水平，每个人都必须掌握较低层次的认知技能。我们认为，高年级工科学生没有达到必要的思维技能，因为他们的低层次的认知技能已经不完全开发或在很大程度上被忽视。我们使用心理成长的层次模型作为基础，加强初级和初级认知技能。有了这些技能，我们然后应用一套教学和学习设备，促进快速和有效的发展批判性思维和工程判断。这个项目包括这些创新的特点：它测试了一个新的，综合的，分层的学习模式;它评估了大量的教学和学习设备，旨在推动学生更高层次的认知;它产生了新的评估工具，帮助教师监测学生的成长。我们的方法正在化学工程本科生中进行测试，但结果广泛适用于所有工程学科。作为这项研究的一部分，正在开发的教育材料包括教学和学习设备（例如，硬件练习，设备探索，基于网络的练习，词汇表，方程查询，图形/方程等效，模式识别），指导如何最好地实施分层模型，以及评估这些活动的有效性的新工具。该项目涉及克莱姆森的六位化学工程教授、克莱姆森的一位教育学教授和西蒙弗雷泽大学（加拿大）的一位教育学教授。罗文大学、北卡罗来纳州农业技术大学、弗吉尼亚大学和密歇根大学的化学工程教授正在对我们的方法进行非现场测试。

Engineering - Chemical (53)The problem we address in this project is this: How can critical thinking skills and engineering judgment be developed in engineering undergraduates before they reach their senior year? We adopt the hypothesis that mental growth constitutes a progression through a hierarchy of cognition, that the critical thinking required of engineers lies at an upper level in the hierarchy, and that, to reach high levels, each individual must master cognitive skills at lower levels. We believe that senior engineering students do not attain the necessary thinking skills because their low-level cognitive skills have been incompletely developed or largely neglected. We use a hierarchical model of mental growth as the basis for strengthening low-level cognitive skills in sophomores and juniors. With those skills in place, we then apply an ensemble of teaching and learning devices that promote rapid and effective development of critical thinking and engineering judgment.This project incorporates these innovative features: it tests a new, integrative, hierarchical model for learning; it evaluates a substantial number of teaching and learning devices that are designed to propel students to higher levels of cognition; it results in new assessment instruments that help instructors monitor student growth. Our approach is being tested on chemical engineering undergraduates, but the results are broadly applicable to all engineering disciplines. Educational materials that are being developed as part of this research include teaching and learning devices (for example, hardware exercises, equipment explorations, web-based exercises, glossaries, equation interrogation, graph/equation equivalencies, pattern identification), guidance on how to best implement the hierarchical model, and new tools to assess the effectiveness of these activities. Broader outcomes from the work include professional presentations and publications and a project website for learning.The project involves six Professors of Chemical Engineering at Clemson, a Professor of Education at Clemson, and a Professor of Education at Simon Fraser University (Canada). Off-site testing of our methods is being performed by chemical engineering professors at Rowan University, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical University, University of Virginia, and University of Michigan.