Research Initiation: Investigating Engineering Students Habits of Mind: A Case Study Approach

研究启动：调查工科学生的思维习惯：案例研究方法

• 批准号: 1544244
• 负责人: Mireille Boutin
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1544244&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Initiation; Investigating; Engineering; Students

The problems facing engineers in the 21st century are highly complex, involving often competing requirements related to available technology, societal needs, environmental considerations, and others. Fostering the ability of students to solve these complex problems requires going beyond teaching technical skills to consider the way engineers think. This project is an interdisciplinary study that aims to characterize undergraduate engineering students' "habits of mind", which are modes of thinking required for engineering students to become effective problem solvers capable of transferring such skills to new contexts. An example of habit of mind is a willingness to make mistakes while trying to solve a problem, an attitude that allows engineers to successfully attack problems that were previously unsolved. Students who have these habits of mind will be prepared to address complex issues such as those described in the NAE Grand Challenges.The project will leverage an education website called Rhea (www.projectrhea.org) along with data acquired as part of an engineering course to identify how students experience scientific habits of mind as they engage in problem solving. To this end, qualitative and quantitative research methods enhanced with machine learning techniques will be combined. This will be accomplished through an interdisciplinary partnership in which a boundary spanning research program to identify and validate novel research methods and formative and summative assessment mechanisms will be initiated. The efforts will center on enhancing qualitative and quantitative educational research and assessment methods with machine learning techniques such as automatic data clustering. The rationale for this project is that its successful completion will (a) enable the research team to develop collaborative inter-disciplinary efforts where the PI Boutin will develop expertise in educational research methods and the co-PI Magana will develop expertise in machine learning; (b) provide a context for an exploratory study to be used as a baseline to apply for future funding to establish a program in engineering education research methods and assessment; (c) address challenges in cultivating a culture of lifelong learning among professional and future engineers via scientific habits of mind in an engineering context; and (d) develop new methods to characterize and measure different aspects of professional formation processes in engineering education. The long term vision is to develop an interdisciplinary partnership in the field of machine-learning-assisted education research.

世纪工程师面临的问题是高度复杂的，通常涉及与可用技术、社会需求、环境考虑等相关的竞争性要求。培养学生解决这些复杂问题的能力需要超越技术技能的教学，考虑工程师的思维方式。该项目是一项跨学科研究，旨在描述本科工程专业学生的“思维习惯”，这是工程专业学生成为能够将这些技能转移到新环境中的有效问题解决者所需的思维模式。思维习惯的一个例子是在试图解决问题时愿意犯错误，这种态度使工程师能够成功地解决以前未解决的问题。拥有这些思维习惯的学生将准备好解决NAE大挑战中描述的复杂问题。该项目将利用一个名为Rhea（www.projectrhea.org）的教育网站沿着作为工程课程的一部分获得的数据，以确定学生在解决问题时如何体验科学思维习惯。为此，将结合使用机器学习技术增强的定性和定量研究方法。这将通过跨学科的伙伴关系来实现，其中将启动一个跨越边界的研究计划，以确定和验证新的研究方法以及形成性和总结性评估机制。这些努力将集中在利用自动数据聚类等机器学习技术加强定性和定量教育研究和评估方法上。该项目的基本原理是，它的成功完成将（a）使研究团队能够开展跨学科的合作努力，PI Boutin将发展教育研究方法方面的专业知识，联合PI Magana将发展机器学习方面的专业知识;（B）提供一个探索性研究的背景，作为申请未来资金建立工程教育研究计划的基准方法和评估;（c）应对挑战，通过工程学背景下的科学思维习惯，在专业和未来的工程师中培养终身学习的文化;（d）制定新的方法，描述和衡量工程教育专业形成过程的不同方面。长期愿景是在机器学习辅助教育研究领域建立跨学科伙伴关系。