Collaborative Research: Bridging the Writing Transfer Gap in Early Engineering Laboratory Courses

这个多机构项目旨在通过提高大学写作教学和工科学生的技术写作能力来服务于国家利益。尽管写作对工程师来说是一项关键技能，但雇主们经常抱怨工科毕业生需要更好的写作技能。本科工程课程通常要求在学习计划的早期就开设各种通识教育写作课程。然而，工程教育者往往没有工具将学生从早期写作课程学习与他们在工程课程中的写作联系起来。这个项目的目标是促进写作技能从大学写作课程向工程课程的转移。为了实现这一目标，该项目将开发一个教学模块，以促进将写作技能从写作课程转移到工程课程的实验室部分。它还将评估教学模块是否提高了学生对工程实验报告的写作能力。这个项目是在上一个项目的基础上扩展的，该项目在一家机构展示了这种方法的成功。在这项后续研究中，写作模块将进一步细化，并在多个机构实施。之所以选择合作机构，是因为它们对工科学生的通识教育写作课程要求不同。因此，这项研究可以确定可以在不同类型的机构之间迁移的写作教学策略。这项参与式学生学习项目将确定学生从三种远距离迁移模式中获得了哪些可转移的知识：同时迁移，即学生在一年级作文和技术写作课程的基础上进行迁移；垂直迁移，即学生只完成了一年级作文；以及缺席迁移，即学生完成了一门文学课程，但缺乏一年级作文所特有的技术写作和作文准备。合作包括至少一家代表这三种模式的机构，使人们能够探索两个关键研究问题：“如何在全美范围内调整写作迁移，以适应较低级别课程的广泛写作课程？”以及“如何在任一教师授课的不同工科实验室课堂中有效地实施以迁移为中心的写作模块？”根据学生集体最近发展区域的地图，实验报告教学模块将通过采用多个支架来改进，以支持学生作为参与式学科学习的实验报告写作的增量参与。该模块将包括直接的教学材料和参考材料，作为撰写实验报告的支持。该项目将对学生的实验报告写作进行定量和定性的评估，作为学科意义的形成，以及学生技术沟通能力的发展。这种综合的混合方法的结果有可能促进关于以迁移为重点的写作教学对学生实验报告写作能力的影响的了解。这个项目是基于一个探索性项目的结果，该项目显示，在两个机构利用垂直迁移模式实施了以书面迁移为重点的实验报告模块后，工科学生的实验报告质量在统计上有了显著改善。这些结果表明，以学生为中心的教学方法明确地强化了写作知识和技能，这比在工程写作教学中经常采用的传统案例研究方法更有成效。有了这些令人鼓舞的先前成果，该项目的结果有可能适用于不同工程课程的不同工程实验室课程设置。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会改善本科生STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源的支持。该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This multi-institutional project aims to serve the national interest by improving college writing instruction and the technical writing abilities of engineering students. Although writing is a critical skill for engineers, employers frequently complain that engineering graduates need better writing skills. Undergraduate engineering curricula typically require various general education writing courses early in the program of study. However, engineering educators often do not have the tools to connect students' learning from early writing courses to their writing in engineering courses. The goal of this project is to improve the transfer of writing skills from college writing courses into engineering courses. To accomplish this goal, the project will develop an instructional module to facilitate transfer of writing skills from writing courses into the laboratory component of engineering courses. It will also evaluate whether the instructional module enhances student writing of engineering lab reports. This project expands on a previous project that demonstrated success in this approach at one institution. In this follow-on study, the writing module will be further refined and implemented at multiple institutions. The partnering institutions were chosen because of differences in the general education writing course requirements for their engineering students. Thus, this research study could identify writing instruction strategies that are transferable across different types of institutions. This Engaged Student Learning project will identify what transferable knowledge students bring from three far-transfer models: concurrent transfer in which students build on first year composition and technical writing courses; vertical transfer in which students have only completed first year composition; and absent transfer in which students have completed a literary course but lack both technical writing and the preparation in composition that is characteristic of first year composition. The collaboration includes at least one institution representing each of the three models, enabling exploration of two key research questions: "How can writing transfer be adapted across the US to a wide range of writing curricula in lower-division courses?" and "How can a transfer-focused writing module be implemented effectively in diverse engineering lab classrooms taught by any instructor?" Informed by a mapping of students' collective zone of proximal development, a lab report instructional module will be refined by adapting multiple scaffolds to support students' incremental engagement with lab report writing as engaged disciplinary learning. The module will include direct instructional materials and reference materials as supports for writing lab reports. The project will conduct quantitative and qualitative assessment of students' lab report writing as disciplinary meaning making, as well as students' development of technical communication skills. Results from this integrated mixed methods approach has the potential to advance knowledge about the impact of transfer-focused writing pedagogies on students' lab report writing competencies. This project is based on results from an exploratory project that showed statistically significant improvements in engineering students' lab report quality after implementing a writing transfer-focused lab report module at two institutions utilizing a vertical transfer model. These results suggest that a student-centered pedagogical approach that explicitly reinforces writing knowledge and skills from prior post-secondary writing experiences can be more productive than the traditional case study approach often employed in engineering writing instruction. With these encouraging prior results, the results of this project have the potential to be applicable to diverse engineering laboratory course settings across diverse engineering curricula. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources. This program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.