BCSER Building Capacity for A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Explanation of Women’s Achievement and Attrition in Undergraduate Engineering Education

BCSER 建设能力，以纵向混合方法解释女性在本科工程教育中的成就和流失

• 批准号: 2025349
• 负责人: Jamie Gurganus
• 金额: $ 23.29万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland Baltimore County
• 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: 2020-08-01 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2025349&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BCSER; Building; Capacity; Longitudinal; Mixed

In this capacity building project, the investigator proposes to develop a model for inquiry in engineering education research that accommodates a range of complementary data types, data sources, points of time, and conceptual lenses while concurrently acquiring skills in explanatory sequential mixed-methods STEM education research. The research project aims to model patterns of major behavior data among undergraduate women entering and exiting an engineering program prior to graduation, elucidate the cultural ecosystem of undergraduate engineering education and its relationship to women’s achievement motivation, and examine the structural modes of power, privilege, and socialization within the discipline. Concurrently, the investigator proposes to implement a professional development plan that will expand the investigator’s skills in mixed-methods, longitudinal design, and analysis of large-scale institutional datasets, advanced statistical modeling techniques, and expertise in undergraduate engineering education curriculum development. The project will add significantly to the understanding of women’s experiences and decisions about engineering on a broad scale and generate information to improve practice in social science research, engineering education research, and higher education administration. The study will be guided by input-environment models, ecological and ecosystems studies, and theories of identity-based motivation. The investigator will leverage the three approaches to investigate two research questions: (1) What patterns of engineering major-switching and course-taking behavior are related to retention and graduation among undergraduate women from 2006 to 2016?, (2a) How do perceptions of the undergraduate engineering education ecosystem compare among women who persist in the major and those who do not?, and (2b) Which experiences in this context are most meaningful to their achievement motivation in the field? A mixed-methods research design will be used to examine diversity among women as well as hierarchies of privilege and power that structure academic life. The research focuses not only on the person but also on the interactions of individuals with their surroundings. The study also will address changes in embedded educational contexts over time and analyze the dynamic between retrospective accounts of alumni and recent reflections of current students. The findings will provide valuable insights about how to provide transformative experiences in engineering education for undergraduate women. The project is supported by the Building Capacity in STEM Education Research competition of the EHR Core Research Program (ECR). ECR funds fundamental research that focuses on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM professional workforce development.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.

在这个能力建设项目中，研究者建议在工程教育研究中开发一个调查模型，该模型可以容纳一系列互补的数据类型、数据源、时间点和概念镜头，同时获得解释性顺序混合方法STEM教育研究的技能。本研究旨在对本科女生在毕业前进入和退出工程专业的主要行为数据模式进行建模，阐明本科工程教育的文化生态系统及其与女性成就动机的关系，并研究该学科内部的权力、特权和社会化结构模式。同时，研究者建议实施一项专业发展计划，该计划将扩展研究者在混合方法、纵向设计、大规模机构数据集分析、先进统计建模技术和本科工程教育课程开发方面的技能。该项目将大大增进对妇女在工程方面的经验和决定的理解，并为改进社会科学研究、工程教育研究和高等教育管理方面的实践提供信息。本研究将以投入-环境模型、生态与生态系统研究和基于身份的动机理论为指导。研究者将利用这三种方法来调查两个研究问题：(1)2006年至2016年，工科专业切换和选修行为的哪些模式与本科女生的留校和毕业有关？（2a）对于本科工程教育的生态系统，坚持专业的女性和没有坚持专业的女性有何不同？（2b）在这种情况下，哪些经历对他们在该领域的成就动机最有意义？一种混合方法的研究设计将用于研究女性的多样性以及构成学术生活的特权和权力等级。这项研究不仅关注人，而且关注个人与周围环境的相互作用。该研究还将探讨嵌入式教育环境随时间的变化，并分析校友的回顾性描述与当前学生的近期反思之间的动态关系。这些发现将为如何为本科女性提供工程教育的变革性体验提供宝贵的见解。该项目得到了EHR核心研究计划（ECR） STEM教育研究能力建设竞赛的支持。ECR资助基础研究，重点关注STEM学习和学习环境，扩大STEM领域的参与，以及STEM专业劳动力的发展。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。