Collaborative Research: "I AM an engineer!" Assessing Engineering Identity, Its Development, and Its Contribution to Retention among Engineering College Students

合作研究：“我是一名工程师！”

• 批准号: 1504741
• 负责人: Debra Major
• 金额: $ 12.47万
• 依托单位: Old Dominion University Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-10-01 至 2019-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1504741&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; AM; engineer; Assessing

This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project conducted at the Texas A&M University System and Old Dominion University will help to improve retention of students in engineering by studying the development of engineering identity among engineering college students in their first two years of study. Engineering student retention must be improved in engineering programs across the country. Understanding the extent to which engineering identity is related to student retention, producing valid and reliable quantitative measures of engineering identity and related constructs, and examining the extent to which student participation in professional development activities influence changes in engineering identity during the first two years of college will be a contribution of this project that every engineering program can apply.As an Exploration project in the Engaged Student Learning program, this research contributes specifically to the body of literature on student retention and engineering identity and also has substantial potential to generate and to inspire future research in engineering identity. The project objectives are to: validate a measure of engineering identity; examine the extent to which engineering identity changes during the first two years of college; assess the extent to which engaging in professional development activities is related to engineering identity; and examine links between engineering identity and retention among engineering students. This project will establish a concise, valid, and reliable measure of engineering identity that will enable large-scale assessment, thereby facilitating future research and interventions concerning identity and retention among engineering students. The findings of this project will inform the broader literature on the retention of college students in science, technology, engineering and math. Additionally, the research findings will have implications for the career identity and professional development literatures, especially pertaining to the pre-entry phase of the career pathway.

这项由德州农工大学系统和老道明大学开展的改善本科STEM教育（IUSE）项目将通过研究工程学院学生在前两年学习中工程身份的发展，帮助提高工程专业学生的保留率。全国范围内的工程专业必须提高工程专业学生的保留率。了解工程身份与学生保留的关系程度，对工程身份和相关结构进行有效可靠的定量测量，并检查学生在大学头两年参与专业发展活动对工程身份变化的影响程度，将是本项目的贡献，每个工程项目都可以应用。作为参与学生学习计划中的一个探索项目，本研究特别为学生保留和工程身份的文献做出了贡献，并且具有产生和启发未来工程身份研究的巨大潜力。项目目标是：验证工程特性的度量；检查在大学的头两年工程身份的变化程度；评估参与专业发展活动与工程师身分的关系；并研究工程身份与工程专业学生的保留之间的联系。该项目将建立一个简洁、有效和可靠的工程身份测量方法，这将使大规模的评估成为可能，从而促进未来关于工程学生身份和保留的研究和干预。该项目的研究结果将为有关科学、技术、工程和数学专业的大学生保留的更广泛的文献提供信息。此外，研究结果将对职业认同和专业发展的研究有一定的启示，特别是与职业路径的进入前阶段有关的研究。