Collaborative Research: Novel neurocognitive assessment of engineering education interventions applied to systems thinking

当今社会和不久的将来所面临的挑战本质上是复杂的系统问题。例如，改善城市交通或管理国际公司的增长都涉及复杂的系统。识别系统中组件之间的交互并优化它们之间的连接的能力被称为系统思维。这种思维方式对于创新至关重要，对于人类的长期生存也是必要的。然而，系统思维对许多人来说并不直观，它可能需要大量的脑力劳动。大多数工程师受益于他们的本科课程提供的正式指导。有许多方法可以教学生系统思考，但不幸的是，评估这些方法的有效性是一个挑战。评估通常侧重于学生能够产生什么，而不是产生它所需的脑力劳动。测量脑力劳动是很重要的，因为如果脑力劳动可以被测量和最小化，系统思维更有可能被学生采用，当他们经历一个真实的世界背景。这项研究将测试一种方法，以帮助学生-更快，更少的脑力劳动-解决复杂的系统问题，使用系统思维。研究测试了使用概念图（一种描述系统内关系的概念图）引导学生思考系统中组件之间的连接和交互的有效性。这个项目测试概念图的效果，以帮助学生解决工程中的复杂问题。该项目不仅将评估学生的解决方案，但测量他们的脑力劳动使用脑成像技术。人们期望概念映射能使复杂的系统问题在心理上更容易解决，这是通过他们大脑中的激活模式来测量的。用概念图引导学生进行系统思维，具有在许多大学课程中采用的潜力，因为在教学中需要进行的调整很少，而且概念图在工程中广泛应用的可能性也很大。该项目将使用概念图引导学生思考工程问题中复杂和动态的关系。测量学生的大脑活动将提供有关这种方法的效果的新数据，以帮助工程专业学生解决复杂的工程问题。三个队列的本科工程专业学生将接受多个，单一的，或没有概念图启动干预。对学生后续工程系统问题解决方案的评估将与大脑激活模式相关。大脑激活将使用一种称为功能性近红外光谱的非侵入性技术来测量。学生将重复实验，以衡量随着时间的推移启动的影响。这项拟议中的研究将通过测量大脑功能的变化如何持续，以及重复的教育启动干预如何影响学生解决复杂工程问题的能力，来扩展现有的知识。研究结果将为工程教育中的认知负荷理论提供一种新型的证据支持，展示如何以使用大脑中特定区域和激活模式的方式启动学生，从而减少随后解决复杂工程问题的认知努力。研究结果将被翻译成简短的研究简报，供大学教师在课堂上实施。该项目还将在工程教育会议研讨会上提供该项目中使用的脑成像技术的年度培训，并为教师和学生提供暑期课程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The challenges facing society today and in the near future are inherently complex systems problems. For example, improving transportation in cities or managing the growth of an international company both involve complex systems. The ability to recognize interactions and optimize connections between components in a system is called systems thinking. This type of thinking is vital for innovation and necessary for humanity’s longer-term survival. However, systems thinking is not intuitive for many people, and it can require significant mental effort. Most engineers benefit from the formal instruction provided in their undergraduate program. There are numerous methods to teach students about systems thinking but, unfortunately, assessing the effectiveness of these methods is a challenge. Assessment typically focuses on what students are able to produce rather than the mental effort required to produce it. Measuring mental effort is important because if mental effort can be measured and minimized, systems thinking is more likely to be adopted by students when they experience a real-world context. This research will test an approach to help students--more quickly and with less mental effort--solve complex systems problems using systems thinking. The research tests the effectiveness of priming students to think about the connections and interactions between components in a system using concept maps, a type of conceptual diagram to depict relationships within a system. This project tests the effects of concept maps to help students solve complex problems in engineering. The project will not only evaluate student solutions but measure their mental effort using a brain imaging technique. The expectation is that concept mapping makes complex systems problems mentally easier to solve, and this is measured via patterns of activation in their brain. Priming students for systems thinking with concept maps holds the potential for adoption across many college programs because of the minimal adjustments needed in teaching and the possibility of widespread application of concept maps in engineering. The project will use concept maps to prime students to think about the complex and dynamic relationships in engineering problems. Measurement of students’ brain activation will provide new data about the effects of this approach to help aid engineering students to solve complex engineering problems. Three cohorts of undergraduate engineering students will receive either multiple, single, or no concept map priming intervention. Assessment of students’ solutions to subsequent engineering systems problems will be correlated with patterns of brain activation. Brain activation will be measured using a non-intrusive technique called functional near infrared spectroscopy. Students will repeat the experiment to measure the effects of priming over time. The proposed research will extend current knowledge by measuring how changes in brain function persist, and how repeated educational priming interventions affect students’ ability to solve complex engineering problems. The results will offer a new type of evidentiary support for cognitive load theory in engineering education by demonstrating how priming students in ways that use specific regions and patterns of activation in their brain reduces subsequent cognitive effort to solve complex engineering problems. The research findings will be translated into short research briefs for college instructors to implement in their classroom. The project will also offer annual training in the brain imaging technique used in this project at engineering education conference workshops and a summer program for faculty and students.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.