Using Problem-Based Learning to Increase the Ethical Reasoning Skills of Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

利用基于问题的学习来提高电气和计算机工程学生的道德推理能力

• 批准号: 2020560
• 负责人: Todd Freeborn
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2020560&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Using; Problem; Based; Learning; Increase

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing electrical and computer engineering (ECE) students’ ethical reasoning skills and perspectives about social responsibility in engineering. Concern for teaching ethics in engineering has existed for some time, with engineering professionals identifying the need to focus on public safety, health, and welfare as early as the 1940s. The need for students to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities and make informed judgements were recently included as a student outcome requirements for ABET accreditation. This project focuses on effective approaches for teaching ethical reasoning and social responsibility for first year students in ECE. This study will evaluate if the active learning approach called problem-based learning is more effective at teaching ethics in engineering education than a traditional lecture-based approach. Problem-based learning approaches help students determine their own learning needs and strategies to achieve that learning. This approach contrasts with traditional approaches that introduce problems only after students have first acquired the relevant content knowledge and skills, often through a lecture. Ethical engineering modules will be designed and deployed in a required first-year course that introduces ECE students to the discipline with a goal of centering ethics and social responsibility as core components of the discipline. These modules will be made available online for engineering educators who are interested in improving ethical reasoning and awareness in other engineering disciplines.The goal of this project is to transform undergraduate engineering education by centering ethics and social responsibility as core components of ECE. A first year introductory ECE course will be re-designed to emphasize ethics and social responsibility throughout the course. The project team will develop and implement learning modules that will be deployed using either a problem-based learning or lecture-based approach. The modules will be used to address the core research question: Is problem-based learning a more effective pedagogy than a traditional lecture based approach for teaching ethical reasoning in support of social responsibility to first year ECE students during their primary introduction to the discipline? The project team will address this question by collecting and analyzing samples of student coursework and performance on tests of ethical reasoning and social responsibility administered before and after the course. Two additional research questions will be addressed: (1) Are there differences in ethical reasoning and perspectives of social responsibility between first year engineering students in ECE and other engineering disciplines without this ethics focus? and (2) Are faculty scores in ethical reasoning and perspectives of social responsibility within an engineering discipline strongly associated with student scores from that same discipline? These two questions will be answered by collecting scores on tests of ethical reasoning and social responsibility from faculty and first year students across engineering disciplines. The results of this project and the ethics modules will be disseminated through an online repository that will include the modules, implementation plans, and results demonstrating the effectiveness of the modules. This project is supported by the NSF IUSE: EHR Program, which 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.

该项目旨在通过提高电气和计算机工程（ECE）学生的道德推理能力和对工程社会责任的看法来服务于国家利益。 关注工程伦理教学已经存在了一段时间，早在20世纪40年代，工程专业人士就认为需要关注公共安全，健康和福利。 学生需要认识到道德和专业责任，并作出明智的判断最近被列为ABET认证的学生成果要求。该项目的重点是有效的方法，在欧洲经委会一年级学生的道德推理和社会责任的教学。 本研究将评估以问题为基础的主动学习方法是否比传统的以讲座为基础的方法更有效地教授工程教育中的伦理学。 以问题为基础的学习方法帮助学生确定自己的学习需求和策略，以实现学习。 这种方法与传统的方法形成鲜明对比，传统的方法只有在学生首先获得相关内容知识和技能之后才引入问题，通常是通过讲座。 道德工程模块将设计和部署在一年级必修课程，向欧洲经委会学生介绍该学科，目标是将道德和社会责任作为该学科的核心组成部分。 这些模块将在线提供给那些有兴趣提高其他工程学科的伦理推理和意识的工程教育工作者，该项目的目标是通过将伦理和社会责任作为ECE的核心组成部分来改变本科工程教育。 第一年的欧洲经济委员会入门课程将重新设计，以在整个课程中强调道德和社会责任。项目小组将开发和实施学习模块，采用基于问题的学习或基于讲座的方法。 这些模块将用于解决核心研究问题：基于问题的学习是一个更有效的教学方法比传统的讲座为基础的方法，用于教学道德推理，以支持社会责任的一年级欧洲经委会学生在他们的主要介绍了学科？ 项目团队将通过收集和分析学生课程作业样本以及课程前后进行的道德推理和社会责任测试的表现来解决这个问题。 两个额外的研究问题将得到解决：（1）是否有差异的伦理推理和社会责任的角度之间的第一年工程学生在欧洲经委会和其他工程学科没有这个道德的重点？以及（2）在工程学科中，教师在伦理推理和社会责任方面的得分与同一学科的学生得分是否密切相关？ 这两个问题将通过收集教师和一年级学生跨工程学科的道德推理和社会责任测试的分数来回答。 该项目的成果和道德操守单元将通过一个在线资料库传播，其中将包括这些单元、实施计划和显示这些单元有效性的成果。该项目由NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持，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。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Work-in-Progress: Teaching ethics using problem-based learning in a freshman introduction to electrical and computer engineering

正在进行的工作：在电气和计算机工程的新生入门中使用基于问题的学习来教授道德规范

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: ASEE annual conference exposition proceedings
• 作者: Freeborn, T.J.;Major, Claire;Sweeney, Miriam E.;McCallum, Debra Moehle;Dunlap, Sarah T.
• 通讯作者: Dunlap, Sarah T.