Contextual Research-Empirical--A Direct Method for Teaching and Measuring Engineering Professional Skills

研究人员建议创建一种方法来教授和测量认证委员会的工程和技术（ABET）专业技能的形式，一个本科组学习干预称为课程汇报（CD）方法。没有直接的教学方法和测量这些技能的同时存在，这是现在普遍公认的标准，在本科工程教育领域，已经存在于文献之前的CD方法。本项目将扩大，实证研究，并完善CD方法和工程专业技能标尺（EPS），这是伴随测量仪器。主要的研究目标是确定的CD方法整合到大一到高年级课程的本科课程的教学和教育的影响。正在进行的研究，在WSU建立初步的可靠性和有效性的CD方法已显示其潜在的重大全国性的影响。然而，还需要更多的研究来提供强有力的证据，证明CD方法作为一项绩效任务和EPS Rubric作为一种测量工具是可靠和有效的。本研究的主要研究目标是严格建立CD方法和EPS规则的信度和效度。将使用描述性集体病例研究方法和随机设计。这种方法将使调查人员建立有效性和有效性，同时了解在三个不同的地点和四个不同的课程类型设置中实施并行性能任务的背景。设置是华盛顿州立大学，爱达荷州大学和诺维奇大学在佛蒙特州。该项目将直接促进工程教育的基础研究，研究国家的重要性和利益问题-国家如何为未来的工程师提供在全球范围内工作所需的技能。

The investigators propose to create a method to teach and measure the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) professional skills in the form of an undergraduate group learning intervention called the curricular debrief (CD) method. No direct method for teaching and measuring the simultaneous presence of these skills, which are now generally recognized as the standard in the undergraduate engineering education field, has existed in the literature prior to the CD method This project will expand, empirically study, and refine the CD method and Engineering Professional Skills Rubric (EPS), which is the accompanying measurement instrument. The primary research goal is to determine the instructional and educational impacts of the integration of the CD method into freshman to senior level courses across the undergraduate curricula.. Ongoing research conducted at WSU to establish the initial reliability and validity of the CD method has shown its potential for significant nationwide impact. Yet, more research is needed to provide strong evidence that the CD method as a performance task and the EPS Rubric as a measurement instrument are reliable and valid. This study's primary research goal is to rigorously establish the reliability and validity of the CD method and the EPS Rubric. A descriptive collective case study methodology and a randomized design will be used. This methodology will allow the investigators to establish efficacy and validity while understanding the contexts in which parallel performance tasks are implemented in three distinct sites and four distinct course-type settings. The settings are WSU, the University of Idaho, and Norwich University in Vermont. This project will directly contribute to fundamental research in engineering education on a problem of national importance and interest---how the nation can prepare future engineers with the skills they need for work in a global context.