Collaborative Research: Mental Models of Students and Practitioners in the Development of an Authentic Assessment Instrument for Traffic Signal Engineering

发展工程实践中的概念性知识已被国家工程教育领导人确定为优先事项，并从理论上期望这将使学生更有能力进行创新工程设计。为了实现这一目标，需要了解工程专业学生和工程从业者认识和学习的基本方式，并设计以研究为基础的课程。本研究的目标是综合职业生涯早期专业人士和学生对交通信号的心理模型，并利用这些知识开发一个完全有效的交通信号概念量表(TSCI)，以及一套与工程实践相关的交通信号操作排序任务练习。这将是第一次利用工程从业者的知识开发概念清单和概念练习。这项工作将：1)确定独立交通信号、协调交通信号和交通信号系统的核心概念；2)综合学生和实践者对这些交通信号的概念性理解；3)开发交通信号情境概念清单和排名任务；4)在全美12所大学实施TSCI和排名任务，并积极传播研究成果。在实施的第一年，数百名学生将接受有效的TSCI评估。这项研究具有重要意义，因为它通过识别实习工程师和学生在概念理解方面的差异来推进这一领域，并开发了包含实践者理解的概念清单工具和概念排名练习。

Developing conceptual knowledge situated in engineering practice has been identified as a priority by national leaders in engineering education, with the theoretically-founded expectation that it will result in students who are more capable of innovative engineering design. Progress toward this goal requires understanding fundamental ways of knowing and learning of both engineering students and engineering practitioners, coupled with the design of research-based curriculum. The goals of this research are to synthesize early career professionals' and students' mental models of traffic signals and use this knowledge to develop a fully validated traffic signal concept inventory (TSCI) along with a set of ranking task exercises in traffic signal operations relevant to engineering practice. This will be the first development of a concept inventory and conceptual exercises using engineering practitioner knowledge. This work will: 1) Determine core concepts for isolated traffic signals, coordinated traffic signals, and systems of traffic signals; 2) Synthesize student and practitioner conceptual understanding of these traffic signals; 3) Develop a situated concept inventory and ranking tasks for traffic signals; and 4) Implement the TSCI and ranking tasks at 12 universities throughout the US and actively disseminate the research results. In the first year of implementation hundreds of students will be assessed with the validated TSCI. This study is significant because it advances the field by identifying differences in conceptual understanding between practicing engineers and students and develops a concept inventory instrument and conceptual ranking exercises incorporating practitioner understandings.