What is Engineering Knowledge: A Longitudinal Study of Conceptual Change and Epistemology of Engineering Students and Practitioners

本工程教育研究项目的目标是了解年轻本科生和早期职业实践工程师之间的概念和认识论差异，并了解导致这些差异的过程。过去的研究表明，工程、科学和数学专业的学生不理解本学科的基本概念，但研究人员也不完全理解早期职业实践工程师使用的概念和认识论框架。由于本科工程教育的目标之一是培养学生实践工程，因此了解实践工程师如何以及知道什么是至关重要的。本项目关注土木工程的具体背景，将模拟学生和早期职业工程师认识论的发展以及对土木设计概念的概念理解，并确定挑战早期职业工程师的关键概念和认识论变化。为了了解学生在成为实践工程师时的认知变化，本研究项目基于两个外部基础研究来源：(1)概念变化的理论认知研究，它为概念理解的价值提供了广泛的证据，并为研究工程思维和认知提供了方法论基础。(2)认识论研究，为认识论对多样性、保留和学习的重要性提供了明确的证据，并为理解工程师如何与其他学科不同地使用知识提供了框架。该项目的更广泛影响可以通过提供路线图来代表概念变化和认识论在性别和种族背景下的差异，从而直接为工程教学和学习提供信息。这些知识有助于理解，从而提高留存率。为了最大限度地发挥这项研究的影响，这个项目的结果将与工程教育工作者分享。

The goal of this engineering education research project is to understand the conceptual and epistemological differences between young undergraduates and early-career practicing engineers and to understand the processes that result in these differences. Past research has shown that engineering, science, and mathematics students do not understand concepts fundamental to their discipline, but researchers do not fully understand the conceptual and epistemological frameworks used by early-career practicing engineers. Since one of the objectives of undergraduate engineering education is to prepare students to practice engineering, it is essential to understand how and what practicing engineers know. This project, focused on the specific context of civil engineering, will model the development of student and early-career engineer epistemology and conceptual understanding of civil design concepts, and identify key conceptual and epistemological changes that challenge early-career engineers. To understand how students' knowing changes as they become practicing engineers this research project is based on two external sources of foundational research: (1) Theoretical cognitive research on conceptual change that provides extensive evidence of the value of conceptual understanding and a methodological basis for researching engineering thinking and knowing. (2) Epistemology research that provides clear evidence of the importance of epistemology to diversity, retention and learning and a framework for understanding how engineers use knowledge differently than other disciplines. The broader impacts of this project can directly inform engineering teaching and learning by providing roadmaps representing how conceptual change and epistemology vary across gender and ethnic backgrounds. This knowledge can help understand, and thus improve retention. To maximize the impact of this research, the results of this project will be shared with engineering educators.