Collaborative Research: Neurocognitive Studies to Enhance STEM Education: Divergent Thinking in Female and Male Engineering Students

工程师为快速变化的以技术为导向的世界提供创造性和新颖的解决方案。创造性地解决问题或发散性思维是这些STEM专业人士成功的关键。工业和学术领袖长期以来一直担心，传统的工程课程教会学生解决定义明确的分析问题，但没有充分培养创造性或发散性思维技能。然而，人们对支持发散性思维的因素所知甚少。在这个项目中，来自工程学和心理学的研究人员将共同努力，了解和培养工科本科生的发散思维能力。该项目将包括两个阶段：检查创造性解决问题过程中发生的大脑活动，以及开发教学材料以鼓励学生的发散性思维。该项目将增加对STEM环境下发散性思维的神经认知基础的理解。它还将提供教育资源，增强未来工程师和其他STEM专业人员的发散思维，这对21世纪的创新经济至关重要。这个跨学科项目将整合工程学、神经科学和心理学的策略和技术，以研究工科学生发散性思维和创意背后的神经和认知机制。在项目的第一阶段，测量大脑活动模式变化的脑电图（EEG）技术将用于研究工程专业学生执行设计任务时的情况。具体来说，参与者将执行发散性思维任务，同时记录细粒度时间分辨率脑电图，以评估与任务相关的α频段频谱功率变化。由于工程师经常在团队中工作，研究人员将专门研究男女工程系学生的发散思维表现是如何受到团队动力的影响的。特别将探讨团队成员的反馈对学生性别的影响，特别关注性别刻板印象威胁或促进的影响，以及高权威个人的性别对学生发散性思维表现的反馈。在项目的第二阶段，脑电图研究的结果将转化为培养发散思维的教育原则。基于这些原则，教学实践将在两所不同大学的本科工程课程中实施和测试，这些课程将结合大二和大四学生的发散思维和设计创意技能。对性别多样性的关注也将为加强对不同工程学生群体的教育提供重要信息。该项目将通过项目网站、面向广大受众的专业发展讲习班和出版物传播成果和材料。

Engineers provide creative and novel solutions for a rapidly-changing technology-oriented world. Creative problem solving, or divergent thinking, is key to the success of these STEM professionals. Industrial and academic leaders have long expressed concerns that traditional engineering programs teach students to solve well-defined analytical problems, but do not adequately develop creative or divergent thinking skills. However, little is known about the factors that support divergent thinking. In this project, researchers from engineering and psychology will work together to understand and nurture divergent thinking skills in undergraduate engineering students. The project will involve two phases: an examination of the brain activity that occurs during creative problem solving, and the development of instructional materials to encourage divergent thinking in students. This project will increase understanding of the neurocognitive basis of divergent thinking in a STEM setting. It will also provide educational resources that enhance divergent thinking in future engineers and other STEM professionals, which is essential for the innovation economy of the 21st century.This interdisciplinary project will integrate strategies and techniques from engineering, neuroscience, and psychology to examine the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying divergent thinking and ideation in engineering students. In the first phase of the project, electroencephalography (EEG) techniques that measure changes in brain activity patterns will be used to study engineering students as they perform design tasks. Specifically, participants will perform divergent-thinking tasks while fine-grained temporal resolution EEG is recorded to assess task-related changes in spectral power in the alpha frequency band. Because engineers often work in teams, the researchers will specifically examine how divergent thinking performance in female and male engineering students is affected by group dynamics. Particularly explored will be team members' feedback that impinges on students' gender, with a specific focus on the impact of gender stereotype threat or boost and the gender of a high-authority individual giving feedback on students' divergent thinking performance. In the second phase of the project, results of the EEG studies will be translated into educational principles that foster divergent thinking. Based on these principles, instructional practices will be implemented and tested at two different universities in undergraduate engineering courses that incorporate divergent thinking and design ideation skills in sophomore- and senior-level students. The focus on gender diversity will also contribute essential information for enhancing the education of diverse engineering student populations. The project will disseminate outcomes and materials through the project website, professional development workshops for broad audiences, and publications.