Collaborative Research: Student Perspectives on Researcher Identity and Transformed Epistemologies (SPRITE)

本科生研究体验(URE)项目对学生理解科学的本质、动机和学业表现有积极的影响。然而，关于作业如何影响学生对研究的看法、他们作为研究人员的身份以及他们对工程知识的信念，人们几乎不了解。在URE的背景下调查学生的研究者身份和对知识的信念(认知信念)是很重要的，因为他们塑造了学生的认知、价值观和与他人的互动，然后这些可以转化为他们的班级和未来的职业生涯。这项研究的结果有助于为学生开发有意义的方式，让他们在研究空间以及教室和实验室中参与、发挥作用和学习。这些发现还以工程学领域特有的方式扩展了关于身份和认知信念的理论。该项目的目标是解决这样的挑战，即培养出装备精良的工程师，以解决与做研究时遇到的类似的复杂、定义不清和无限制的问题。研究结果使工程教育工作者能够提供新颖的教育体验，将学生培养成未来的研究人员和工程师，从而使这些体验产生长期影响。该项目的更广泛影响包括对工程以外的领域的好处，这些领域吸引了学生参与研究。此外，通过将不同的学生群体纳入研究，可以更深入地了解来自不同背景、工程领域和机构类型的学生如何体验并从参与研究中受益。本项目的首要研究问题是：工科本科生如何发展他们作为研究人员的身份，以及他们通过研究经验了解工程学的方式？这个项目有四个具体目标。首先是理解工科本科生是如何概念化和构建成为一名研究人员的意义的。二是发现学生认为影响其研究者认同发展的因素是什么。第三个是了解这些学生如何描述他们所在领域的知识意味着什么。四是了解学生在研究过程中如何形成对知识和认知本质的信念。扎根的理论方法被用来扩展现有的身份和认知信念框架，以在工程研究经验的背景下发展一种理论。这项分三个阶段的研究使用开放式调查和访谈来确定符合研究目标并可用于举办讲习班的主题。该项目的智力价值在于开发了一种特定于工程的学习理论，该理论基于学生对了解方式和他们作为研究人员的身份的信念。这一理论被用来向工程教育者提供信息，并与他们合作，以找到在工程学位课程和课程中应用研究成果的方法。为工程教育者举办的工作坊侧重于如何结合课程的各个方面，帮助学生建立认识的方式和他们作为研究社区和工程领域参与者的身份。

Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) programs have positive effects on student understanding of the nature of science, motivation, and academic performance. However, little is understood about how UREs affect students' views of research, their identities as researchers, and their beliefs about knowledge in engineering. Investigating students' researcher identities and beliefs about knowledge (epistemic beliefs) in the context of URE is important because they shape the students' perceptions, values, and interactions with others, which can then be translated to their classes and future careers. The outcomes of this study help develop meaningful ways for students to engage, function, and learn in research spaces as well as classrooms and laboratories. Findings also expand theories about identity and epistemic beliefs in ways that are specific to engineering fields. The goal of the project is to address the challenge of producing engineers who are well-equipped to tackle complex, ill-defined, and open-ended problems similar to those encountered when doing research. The results enable engineering educators to provide novel educational experiences, developing students as future researchers and engineers such that these experiences will have long term impacts. The project's broader impacts include benefits to fields beyond engineering that engage students in research. Also, by including diverse student populations in the study, a deeper understanding is gained about how students from different backgrounds, engineering fields, and types of institutions experience and benefit from participating in research.The overarching research question for this project is: How do undergraduate engineering students develop their identities as researchers and their ways of knowing engineering through research experiences? There are four specific aims of this project. The first is to understand how undergraduate engineering students conceptualize and construct what it means to be a researcher. The second is to discover what factors the students think affect their researcher identity development. The third is to find out how these students describe what it means to know something in their fields. The fourth is to understand how students form their beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing during research experiences. A grounded theory approach is used to expand existing identity and epistemic belief frameworks to develop a theory within the context of research experiences in engineering. The three-phase study uses open-ended surveys and interviews to identify themes that answer the research aims and can be used to develop workshops. The intellectual merit of the project lies in developing an engineering-specific learning theory based on students' beliefs about ways of knowing and their identities as researchers. This theory is used to inform and work with engineering educators to find ways to apply research findings in engineering degree programs and UREs. Workshops for engineering educators focus on ways to incorporate the aspects of UREs that help build students' ways of knowing and their identities as participants in their research communities and their engineering fields.