Applied, Related Knowledge: Defining Engineers and Students Domains of Knowing

蒙福特博士正在研究工程师和工科学生对自己所知进行分类的方式的异同。概念变化和个人认识论领域的现有研究表明，学习和所学知识的应用都取决于新知识的组织方式。这项工作利用领域的结构作为一种手段，在一个有意义的粒度上调查参与者的知识组织。在这项调查中，实习工程师被要求描述他们所从事的实际多学科项目中应用的知识领域。学生们还接受了关于这些项目所涉及的知识领域的采访。基于相互作用的个人认识论方法的主题分析提供了一种比较工程师和学生之间知识领域的方法。虽然这一点还没有得到明确的证实，但现有的研究表明，学生的知识领域更多的是阻碍而不是促进他们的知识应用。换句话说，学生组织知识的方式可能会影响他们应用知识的能力。经验丰富的工程师可能会看到一个有凝聚力的知识领域——例如“过程工程”——而工程专业的学生可能会看到一个任意的不同技能和想法的分组。先前的研究强调学生如何努力学习工程概念，并将这些知识的应用视为一个单独的（如果密切相关的）问题。这项工作开发了一种潜在的变革性的新方法，通过关注组织过程来控制如何学习和如何应用某些东西。

Dr. Montfort is studying the similarities and differences between how engineers and engineering students categorize what they know. Existing research in the fields of conceptual change and personal epistemology show that learning and the application of what is learned both depend on the ways in which the new knowledge is organized. This work utilizes the construct of domains as a means to investigate the organizations of participants' knowledge at a meaningful grain size. In this investigation practicing engineers are asked to describe the domains of knowledge applied to real multi-disciplinary projects they have been engaged in. Students are also interviewed about the domains of knowledge involved in these projects. Thematic analysis based on an interactional approach to personal epistemology provides a means to compare the domains of knowing between the engineers and students.Although it has not been firmly established yet, existing research suggests that students' domains of knowing do more to interfere with the application of their knowledge than to facilitate it. In other words, the way students organize what they know may be interfering with how able they are to apply it. Where an experienced engineer might see a cohesive domain of knowledge -- such as "process engineering" for example -- engineering students may instead see an arbitrary grouping of otherwise dissimilar skills and ideas. Previous research emphasizes how students struggle to learn the concepts of engineering, and treats the application of that knowledge as a separate (if closely related) problem. This work develops a potentially transformative new way of looking at it by focusing on the organization processes that control both how something is learned and how it is applied.