Research Initiation Grant: Improving Problem Solving in Electric Circuits using Cognitive Task Analysis

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This engineering education research initiation grant will create a partnership between engineering and STEM education faculty to investigate how to more efficiently teach engineering students how to become experts in their discipline. The project will use cognitive task analysis, drawing from knowledge of expert engineers, to teach students how better to solve common engineering problems. A solid experimental design is proposed to determine if cognitive task analysis can help transition students more quickly to expert status. The broader significance and importance of this project is twofold. First, researching how to identify and correct the difficulties students have in applying engineering knowledge to problems, particularly interdisciplinary problems, engineers are more able to address the needs of society. The project also build partnerships between engineering faculty and researchers in learning sciences, which can have broad impact on informing engineering education with more effective practices. This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of transforming the frontiers through preparation of an engineering workforce with new capabilities and expertise. Additionally NSF's goal of innovating for society is enabled by creating results and research that are useful for society by informing educational policy and practices.