Using Writing-to-Learn Methods to Improve Conceptual Understanding in Statics

本工程教育研究计画旨在将写作练习引入工程静力学课程，以提高这门工程入门课程的基础知识。项目团队已经展示了初步结果，显示了使用解释性写作作为帮助学生学习静态学概念和程序方面的方法的希望。该项目既包括基于现有文献的方法的基础研究，也包括传播结果的计划，以便其他工程项目可以很容易地采用所开发的实践。本计画更广泛的意义和重要性在于帮助学生学习静力学的工程概念。静力学是工科的一门“入门”课程；也就是说，大多数工程专业的学生都选择了这门课，这通常是决定学生在完成工程学位方面取得进展的关键因素。因此，开发更有效的静力学教学方法可以提高工程专业学生的保留率，并减少学生获得工程学位所需的时间。项目小组采用的方法只需要对现有课程进行很少的更改，因此可以在各种院校广泛采用。

This engineering education research project seeks to introduce writing exercises into engineering statics courses to improve foundational knowledge in this engineering gateway course. The project team has demonstrated preliminary results that show promise for using explanatory writing as a method to help students learn conceptual and procedural aspects of statics. The project includes both fundamental research on this approach that is well-grounded in existing literature, and a plan to disseminate the results so that other engineering programs can easily adopt the practices developed.The broader significance and importance of this project will be to help students learn the engineering concepts in statics. Statics is a "gateway" course in engineering; i.e. one that is taken by most engineering students and is often a key factor in determining students' progress in completing an engineering degree. Thus developing more effective methods of teaching statics can result in improved retention in engineering and a reduction in the time it takes students to earn an engineering degree. The approach taken by the project team will require few changes in existing courses, and thus can be broadly adopted at a diverse range of institutions.