Identifying and Validating Interactive and Uncommon Characteristics of Retention and Success in Engineering Education

本项目针对与工程保留和成功相关的知识现状中的三个显著差距：1)缺乏关于基于多种因素相互作用的共同作用的工程保留和成功特征的知识；2)缺乏关于基于变量关系建模的工程保留和成功特征的知识，这些变量存在于变量的某些值而不是所有的值，或者对于不同的变量值范围是不同的；以及3)缺乏关于罕见的工程保留和成功特征的知识，这些学生不属于工程保留和成功的共同特征。该项目将使用新的部分值关联发现(PVAD)算法来识别工程保留和成功的共同和不常见特征。该项目得到了NSF的EHR核心研究(ECR)计划的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。与基于单个变量和全值变量关系的影响的现有研究结果相比，该项目的新发现将丰富对工程保留和成功的理解和知识。将制定和实施工程咨询和跟踪计划的干预措施，以帮助学生发展新确定的工程保留和成功特征。将观察和分析对学生的干预效果，以验证工程保留和成功特征的新发现。新的工程保留和成功特征的识别和验证将为帮助更多的学生在全国范围内实现工程保留和成功提供指导，从而扩大更多学生在工程领域的参与。

This project targets three significant gaps in the current state of knowledge relevant to engineering retention and success: 1) lack of knowledge on engineering retention and success characteristics based on interactive, concurrent effects of multiple factors, 2) lack of knowledge about engineering retention and success characteristics based on the modeling of variable relations that exist for some but not all values of variables or are different for different value ranges of variables, and 3) lack of knowledge about uncommon engineering retention and success characteristics of outlier students who do not fall into common characteristics of engineering retention and success. The project will employ the new Partial-Value Association Discovery (PVAD) algorithm to identify common and uncommon characteristics of engineering retention and success. This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.New findings from this project will enrich the understanding and knowledge of engineering retention and success, in comparison with existing findings based on effects of individual variables and all-value variable relations. The intervention with an engineering counseling and tracking program to help students development of the newly identified engineering retention and success characteristics will be developed and implemented. The intervention effects on students will be observed and analyzed to validate the new findings of engineering retention and success characteristics. The identification and validation of new engineering retention and success characteristics will provide guidelines to help more students achieve engineering retention and success across the nation, thus broadening the participation of more students in engineering fields.