Research: Evidencing Epidemic Change in Engineering Education: Shedding Light on Instructor Adaptability and Course Complexity for Sustained Change

研究：证明工程教育中的流行变化：揭示教师适应性和课程复杂性以实现持续变化

基本信息

批准号：
2105156
负责人：
Heidi Diefes-Dux
金额：
$ 35万
依托单位：
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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：
2021-09-01 至 2024-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2105156&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Research Evidencing Epidemic Change Engineering

项目摘要

Engineering education lags behind some other science, technology, and math disciplines in the use of best teaching practices. University engineering faculty's adoption of such practices is a national priority because the expectation is that the use of best practices will result in more innovative and creative designs, a more diverse workforce, and students that are better prepared for their career. Use of a wide array of teaching practices and strategies (WATPS) have been shown to improve student outcomes and increase persistence in engineering, especially among underrepresented groups. Yet, many university engineering faculty continue to use traditional teaching methods, hindering the success of engineering students. This project is significant as COVID-19 spurred an unprecedented change to the way university faculty deliver their courses. Studying how faculty adapted their teaching practices under unprecedented conditions that forced them to change and whether they retain these changes and continue to grow as instructors is important for guiding the design of resources to help faculty adopt a WATPS. This project will contribute to the Research in the Formation of Engineers program by identifying the supports that a range of faculty need to promote the development of a capable and diverse engineering workforce. The objective of this project will be to investigate and document the effects of COVID-19 on engineering faculty’s teaching practices and sustained use of a WATPS relative to their adaptability and course complexity. This project is significant because it is the first comprehensive study exploring the impacts of a crisis-induced change and persistence of change to teaching practices through an adaptability framework. The overarching research questions are: How does course complexity, as indicated by the array of teaching practices and strategies and their associated challenge to implement, change during migration to a new normal following a forced change? What supports and barriers exist for instructors of differing adaptability given the courses that they teach? These research questions will be answered using a sequential mixed-methods approach that includes a combination of surveys, interviews, and teaching artifacts. This study will contribute fundamental knowledge on instructors’ adaptability and the changing complexity of instructors’ teaching practices and strategies when faced with the need to deliver courses differently. The proposed research will be novel and original in its use of adaptability theory to understand how an external motivator impacts faculty teaching at an R1 university. Outcomes from this work include a typology of teaching complexity, knowledge of instructor adaptability, and rich descriptions of course complexity trends. These outcomes will help inform a Program of Tiered Commitments that engineering colleges, departments, and faculty developers can use to support instructors’ adoption of best teaching practicesThis 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.

在使用最佳教学实践中，工程教育落后于其他一些科学，技术和数学学科。大学工程学院采用这种做法是国家的优先事项，因为期望最佳实践会导致更具创新性和创意的设计，更多样化的劳动力以及为自己的职业做好准备的学生。已经证明，使用广泛的教学实践和策略（WATP）可以改善学生的成果并增加工程学的持久性，尤其是在代表性不足的群体中。然而，许多大学工程教师继续使用传统的教学方法，阻碍了工程专业的学生的成功。该项目很重要，因为Covid-19刺激了大学教师提供课程的方式前所未有的变化。研究教师如何在前所未有的条件下适应他们的教学实践，这些条件迫使他们改变了变化，以及他们是否保留这些变化并继续作为讲师而成长，这对于指导资源设计以帮助教师采用WATP很重要。该项目将通过确定一系列教师需要促进能力和潜水员工程劳动力的发展所需的支持，从而为工程师计划的形成研究做出贡献。该项目的目的是调查和记录Covid-19对工程学院教学实践的影响，并持续使用WATP，相对于其适应性和课程复杂性。该项目之所以重要，是因为它是第一个探索危机引起的变化的影响以及通过适应性框架对教学实践的持久性的影响。总体研究问题是：课程复杂性如何，如一系列的教学实践和策略及其相关的实施挑战，在强迫变化之后迁移到新的正常状态的相关挑战如何？鉴于他们所教的课程，有哪些支持和障碍的教师存在哪些支持和障碍？这些研究问题将使用连续的混合方法方法来回答，该方法包括调查，访谈和教学工件的组合。这项研究将在面对不同的课程不同时，就教师的适应性以及讲师教学实践和策略的复杂性的不断变化的基本知识有助于。拟议的研究将是新颖的，并且在使用适应性理论以了解外部动机如何影响R1大学的教师教学方面将是新颖和原始的。这项工作的结果包括教学复杂性，教师适应性知识的类型以及当然复杂性趋势的丰富描述。这些结果将有助于告知一项层次的承诺，即工程学院，部门和教职员工开发人员可以用来支持教师采用最佳教学实践奖，反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估而被认为是珍贵的支持。