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

工程教育在使用最佳教学实践方面落后于其他一些科学，技术和数学学科。大学工程系采用这种做法是国家的优先事项，因为期望的是，使用最佳做法将导致更多的创新和创造性的设计，更多样化的劳动力，和学生更好地为他们的职业生涯做好准备。使用广泛的教学实践和策略（WATPS）已被证明可以提高学生的成绩，并增加工程的持久性，特别是在代表性不足的群体中。然而，许多大学工程系继续使用传统的教学方法，阻碍了工程专业学生的成功。该项目意义重大，因为COVID-19促使大学教师提供课程的方式发生了前所未有的变化。研究教师如何适应他们的教学实践在前所未有的条件下，迫使他们改变，以及他们是否保留这些变化，并继续成长为教师是重要的指导资源的设计，以帮助教师采用WATPS。该项目将通过确定一系列教师需要促进有能力和多样化的工程劳动力的发展的支持，为工程师计划的形成研究做出贡献。该项目的目标是调查和记录COVID-19对工程学院教学实践的影响，以及相对于其适应性和课程复杂性的WATPS的持续使用。该项目意义重大，因为它是第一个通过适应性框架探索危机引起的变化和持续变化对教学实践的影响的综合研究。首要的研究问题是：如何课程的复杂性，所示的教学实践和策略的阵列及其相关的挑战，以实施，迁移到一个新的常态下，被迫改变？不同适应性的教师在其所教课程中存在哪些支持和障碍？这些研究问题将使用顺序混合方法的方法，包括调查，访谈和教学工件的组合来回答。这项研究将提供有关教师适应性的基础知识，以及在面临以不同方式提供课程的需要时教师教学实践和策略不断变化的复杂性。拟议中的研究将是新颖的和原始的适应性理论的使用，以了解如何在R1大学的教师教学的外部激励因素的影响。这项工作的成果包括教学复杂性的类型学，教师的适应性知识，课程复杂性的趋势和丰富的描述。这些成果将有助于告知工程学院，部门和教师开发人员可以用来支持教师采用最佳教学实践的分层承诺计划。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

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.