A Longitudinal Study of the Dimensions of Disciplinary Culture to Enhance Innovation and Retention among Engineering Students

加强工科学生创新力和保留力的纪律文化维度的纵向研究

• 批准号: 1329224
• 负责人: Thomas Martin
• 金额: $ 43.56万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1329224&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Longitudinal; Study; Dimensions; Disciplinary; Culture

This grant studies differences in disciplinary culture between undergraduates in engineering and in other disciplines to better understand the relationship between disciplinary cultural identity and academic outcomes of engineering students. The goal of the study is to identify aspects of disciplinary culture that are major factors in addressing issues that a critical for engineering education in the future, such as innovation, creativity, and diversity. The grant applies Hofstede?s dimensions of culture (power distance, collectivism/individualism, femininity/masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance) to explain how students develop skills to operate within a discipline and across disciplines. Furthermore, the grant explores the relationship between disciplinary culture and student recruitment and retention in engineering programs, particularly with respect to underrepresented groups. The investigators? prior work with interdisciplinary design teams indicates that the dimension of uncertainty avoidance is especially critical: the ability to tolerate and even embrace uncertainty supports innovative interdisciplinary design practice. In addition, while many engineering students may be less likely to tolerate uncertainty, those engineers who do embrace uncertainty may find themselves alienated from engineering curricula. This pattern, in turn, may impact diversity in engineering student populations.Consequently, the grant addresses five research questions: 1) How do Hofstede?s dimensions of culture map to academic disciplines? 2) What are the relationships between the dimensions of culture and (a) student choice of major and (b) student success with a major? 3) How do students change over time in their academic programs with respect to the dimensions of culture? 4) What factors affect those changes, e.g., curriculum, instructors? 5) Do the relationships in above show any variation by demographic indicators, e.g., race or gender? To investigate these questions, the grant includes a multi-university study that examines the dimensions of culture across the university, and then follows the development of students within engineering. The intellectual merit of the grant includes developing an actionable theory of disciplinary culture that can support pedagogies of inclusive and collaborative innovation. Despite widespread agreement that engineers for the 21st century must be more creative and innovative, there has been little progress in developing engineering pedagogies that support those goals. The results of the grant can be used by engineering programs to better design curricula that support innovation and creativity. The broader impacts include having a better understanding of the role of disciplinary culture in recruiting and retaining students, particularly with respect to groups that are currently underrepresented in engineering. This grant informs the debate about the role of engineering design in training U.S. engineers to meet the technical challenges of the 21st century.

该赠款研究了工程学和其他学科的本科生在学科文化方面的差异，以更好地了解学科文化认同与工程专业学生的学术成果之间的关系。该研究的目的是确定纪律文化的各个方面，这是解决未来工程教育至关重要的问题的主要因素，例如创新，创造力和多样性。 该赠款应用了霍夫斯泰德（Hofstede）的文化（权力距离，集体主义/个人主义，女性气质/男性气质和避免不确定性）的维度，以解释学生如何发展技能以在学科和跨学科中运作。此外，该赠款还探讨了纪律文化与学生招聘与工程计划中的保留之间的关系，尤其是在代表性不足的群体方面。调查人员？与跨学科设计团队的先前工作表明，避免不确定性的维度尤其重要：容忍甚至拥抱不确定性的能力支持创新的跨学科设计实践。此外，尽管许多工程专业的学生可能忍受不确定性的可能性较小，但是那些拥抱不确定性的工程师可能会发现自己与工程课程疏远了。反过来，这种模式可能会影响工程学生人口的多样性。因此，该赠款解决了五个研究问题：1）霍夫斯泰德文化地图如何到学科的学科？ 2）文化的维度与（a）学生选择和（b）学生的成功之间有什么关系？ 3）学生在学术课程中如何随着文化维度而变化？ 4）哪些因素会影响这些变化，例如课程，讲师？ 5）上面的关系是否显示了人口统计指标（例如种族或性别）的任何变化？为了调查这些问题，该赠款包括一项多元大学研究，该研究研究了整个大学文化的维度，然后遵循工程学中的学生的发展。 赠款的智力优点包括开发一种可行的纪律文化理论，可以支持包容性和协作创新的教学法。尽管普遍同意21世纪的工程师必须具有更具创造力和创新性，但在发展支持这些目标的工程教学法方面几乎没有进步。工程计划可以使用赠款的结果来更好地设计支持创新和创造力的课程。更广泛的影响包括更好地了解纪律文化在招募和留住学生中的作用，尤其是在目前工程中人数不足的群体方面。该赠款向辩论提供了有关工程设计在培训美国工程师方面应对21世纪技术挑战的辩论。