Collaborative Research/Research Initiation: What Practice Makes Perfect

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Practice plays an important role in developing useful abilities for almost any undertaking. Although practice has been studied extensively in competitive sports and musical performance, it is understudied within engineering education. With advancements in training and practice strategies, athletes and musicians have kept setting new records. The gold standard for practice has been discovered as "deliberate practice" which puts great emphasis on practice specificity. To achieve superior performance, elite performers must practice with tailored drills focused on specific skill deficiencies just as how they practiced as beginners to gain rapid progress. In contrast, engineering students rarely practice with such specificity. For example, students usually practice with textbook problems which might exceed their current skill level. Such practice will result in no or little progress and reduced confidence. It is critical to engage students with effective practice to enhance learning efficiency. The proposed study will examine the effectiveness of tailored practice strategies in the gateway engineering mechanics courses (i.e., Statics and Dynamics) which have a high impact on engineering student retention. Special focus will be given to exploring what types of deliberate practice can help students more effectively in the initial learning stage as well as in the later retention phase. Additionally, this research initiation will also investigate practice strategies which benefit engineering faculty in acquiring knowledge and skills for conducting engineering education research. Findings and insights gained from this research will expand the community of engineering education researchers and expedite the adoption of evidence-based instructional strategies.The study will be conducted at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The effects of three strategies (i.e., backwards faded practice, modular practice, and spaced practice) on developing and consolidating problem solving skills will be investigated in the gateway courses. Mixed-methods will be used. Multivariate and univariate statistical models will be utilized to analyze data collected from the counterbalanced research design with the benefit of controlling confounding factors. Quantitative data will be collected to analyze learning performance and qualitative data will be used to contextualize quantitative findings as well as refine practice. The intellectual merits of the project are manifested by advancing knowledge of practice design for mechanics courses and beyond, generating information in greater detail about changes to students' conceptual and procedure knowledge of mechanics through practice, as well as providing insights on expanding the engineering education research community. The broad impacts of the project are intrinsic to the research itself because the findings from this project will not only impact 490 undergraduate engineering students and enhance learning mechanics, but also have the potential to improve learning in other applicable science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas in which practice serves as a major learning mechanism. With Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's increasing effort on recruiting women, people with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in the STEM programs, the project will contribute in diversifying the STEM workforce.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.