Understanding the intersection of student motivation and approaches to learning in an engineering Problem Solving Studio

工程师的价值在于他们解决问题的方式，他们遵循的策略是使用简化的、理想化的、图解的和数学模型以及定量分析。学生们发现这个策略很难学。该项目将调查一种名为问题解决工作室(PSS)的创新学习环境，此前的初步研究表明，该环境有助于学生学习工程思维方式。本项目将在这些先导研究的基础上回答以下问题：1)与传统的以讲授为基础的课程相比，PSS如何影响学生的学习方法？2)PSS如何影响学生的赋权意识？(3)学生的学习方式、赋权意识和学习之间有什么关系？该项目将确定创建有效的翻转课堂所需的关键原则和设计标准，这是一种以学生为中心的新教学方法，正在工程学系迅速流行。该项目的成果将提高对如何有效教授入门级工程课程的理解，并将阐明为什么大多数(但不是所有)学生在翻转课堂学习环境中茁壮成长。该项目有可能改变工程学教师配置入门课程的方式，从而提高学生的积极性，更有效地学习方法，最重要的是，在学生学习如何像工程师一样思考方面获得更大的收获。该项目有望为教师提供翻转教室的成功路线图，从而增加从事这一有效教学的STEM教职员工数量。

Engineers are valued for the way they solve problems where a strategy is followed that uses simplified, idealized, diagrammatic and mathematical models, and quantitative analyses. Students find this strategy very difficult to learn. This project will investigate an innovative learning environment, called the problem solving studio (PSS), that previous pilot studies have suggested help students learn engineering ways of thinking. This project will build on these pilot studies to answer the following questions: 1) How does PSS affect the approaches students take to learning, as compared to more traditional lecture-based courses? 2) How does PSS affect students' sense of empowerment? and 3) What are the relationships among students' approaches to learning, their sense of empowerment, and their learning? The project will identify the key principles and design criteria that are needed to create an effective flipped classroom, which is a new student-centered approach to instruction that is rapidly gaining popularity in engineering departments. Outcomes from this project will improve understanding of how to effectively teach entry-level engineering courses, and will shed light on why most, but not all, students thrive in flipped classroom learning environments. The project has the potential to transform how engineering faculty configure their gateway courses for greater student motivation, more effective approaches to learning, and most importantly, greater gains in how well students learn to think like engineers. The project holds promise for providing instructors a road map to success for flipping their classrooms, thus increasing the number of STEM faculty who are engaged in this effective pedagogy.