Improving Undergraduate Success through Effective Critical Thinking

通过有效的批判性思维提高本科生的成功

• 批准号: 2043992
• 负责人: Joseph Biernacki
• 金额: $ 29.83万
• 依托单位: Tennessee Technological University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-03-15 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2043992&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; Undergraduate; Success; through; Effective

This project aims to serve the national interest by providing engineering students with important training in critical thinking. Such training is expected to enhance their problem-solving skills, academic performance, and retention. Information that students previously had to memorize is now just a mouse click away. However, this availability makes it much more important that students learn how to think critically about that information. Critical thinking includes thinking objectively, seeking unbiased data, and considering a broad range of perspectives. This project aims to systematically study how critical thinking affects both short- and long-term student success over the four years of undergraduate Chemical and Electrical Engineering education. The study will include first year students whose progress will be monitored through graduation. The research team also plans to investigate gendered effects of critical thinking since women are greatly underrepresented in STEM fields. Finally, the team will work with middle and high school teachers to explore ways to integrate critical thinking activities at the secondary-school level, helping to better prepare students for college. The project's findings have the potential to help educators to design more effective critical thinking programs, including efforts that focus on the success of women in STEM. The project goal is to explore whether deliberate training in critical thinking in early years of the engineering curriculum improves students’ learning. To this end, the multidisciplinary project team of engineers, psychologists, and education researchers will use the NSF-funded Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT), which was designed by a member of the investigative team in 2004. The CAT instrument is one of the few critical thinking assessment tools that uses short answer essay responses to assess critical thinking. The research will use a two-level, two-factor, factorial design using direct statistical analysis, with the CAT exam administered as pre- and post-intervention treatments. In this design some students will be provided with interventions meant to improve critical thinking and some students will have multiple interventions. The performance of these students will be compared to that of control students who did not receive the intervention(s). The nation’s socioeconomic success will be strengthened by individuals who look objectively at information before acting and who make informed decisions rather than relying on instinct and preconceptions. Thus, critical thinking, together with effective problem solving and the ability to draw connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information, are of tremendous societal benefit. This project is funded through 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.

该项目旨在通过为工程专业的学生提供重要的批判性思维培训来为国家利益提供服务。这种培训有望提高他们的解决问题的技能，学习成绩和保留。现在，学生以前必须记住的信息只是单击鼠标。但是，这种可用性使学生学习如何对该信息进行批判性思考变得更加重要。批判性思维包括客观思考，寻求公正的数据以及考虑广泛的观点。该项目旨在系统地研究批判性思维如何影响四年的大学化学和电气工程教育中的短期和长期学生的成功。这项研究将包括一年级学生，他们的进度将通过毕业来监控。研究小组还计划调查批判性思维的性别影响，因为女性在STEM领域的人数不足。最后，团队将与中学和高中老师合作，​​探索在辅助学校层面整合批判性思维活动的方法，从而帮助学生为大学做好准备。该项目的发现有可能帮助教育工作者设计更有效的批判性思维计划，包括专注于STEM女性成功的努力。项目目标是探索工程课程早期的批判性思维中有意培训是否可以改善学生的学习。为此，工程师，心理学家和教育研究人员的多学科项目团队将使用NSF资助的批判性思维评估测试（CAT），该测试是由2004年调查团队成员设计的。CAT仪器是少数几种使用简短答案的批判性思维评估工具之一。该研究将使用直接统计分析使用两级，两因素的阶乘设计，猫考试作为干预前和干预后治疗。在此设计中，一些学生将得到一些旨在改善批判性思维的干预措施，一些学生将进行多种干预措施。这些学生的表现将与未接受干预的对照学生的表现进行比较。个人的社会经济成功将由显然在行动前观察信息，做出明智的决定，而不是依靠本能和先入为主的个人来加强。这是批判性思维，以及有效的解决问题，以及在看似无关的信息之间建立联系的能力，具有巨大的社会利益。该项目是通过NSF IUSE：EHR计划资助的，该计划支持研发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习轨道，该计划支持了承诺实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估审查标准，被认为是珍贵的支持。