Practicing Self-Regulation of Cognition and Motivation during Problem Solving in Engineering and Mathematics

该项目旨在通过提高本科生在工程和数学方面的问题解决能力来服务于国家利益。为此，该项目将更好地理解学生在解决工程和数学难题的过程中如何自我调节自己的认知和动机。它还将支持教师使用促进自律的教学实践。自我调节包括使学生在从事学术活动时能够控制自己的思想和情绪的知识和技能。本项目的重点是改善学生在两门必修的二年级工程和数学课程的问题解决活动中的自我调节能力。在工程和数学中，问题通常具有新手不容易识别的隐含的约束和要求。因此，需要进行研究，以了解工程和数学教师如何帮助学生在解决问题的活动中发展和激活他们的自我调节能力。要成为有效的问题解决者，学生必须在整个问题解决活动中积极协调他们对手头任务的理解、他们的思想和他们的动机。这个为期三年的项目将推动工程和数学教育的理论和实践，促进工程和数学学生在工程和数学解题活动中思维和动机的自我调节。这些自我调节技能包括：(1)学生对所解决问题的个人知识(关于任务的元认知知识)；(2)学生根据元认知知识对认知过程的主动和反思性协调(认知自我调节)；(3)学生对解决问题活动中保持投入所需动机的自我控制(动机自我调节)。该项目将做出三项重大贡献。首先，研究结果将拓宽有限的知识，即学生关于任务的元认知知识如何影响他们在工程和数学问题解决活动中的认知和动机自我调节过程。其次，通过直接与工程学和数学系合作，了解发现的含义，并开发新的实践和工具来促进自我调节学习，该项目可能会促进问题解决教学。第三，由于本研究将开发、测试和实施新的研究方案来评估学生关于任务和他们使用的策略的元认知知识，新的知识将对未来学生在工程和数学以及其他领域的自我调节学习的研究有积极的贡献。本研究以四个研究性问题为指导，采用定量研究与定性研究相结合的序贯混合研究设计，对学生在工程和数学解题活动中的自我调节认知和自我调节动机进行粗细互补的理解。粗略的理解将通过分析使用有效的自我报告调查(例如，动机简明规则量表，BROMS和物理元认知问卷，PMI)收集的定量数据来发展。通过对通过一对一访谈、大声思考协议、课堂观察和课堂上收集的课程人工制品收集的定性数据的分析，将形成细粒度的理解。NSF IUSE：EHR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。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by enhancing undergraduate students' problem-solving skills in engineering and mathematics. To do so, the project will develop a greater understanding about how students self-regulate their cognition and motivation during the process of solving difficult engineering and math problems. It will also support instructors to use teaching practices that promote self-regulation. Self-regulation comprises the knowledge and skills that enable students to control their thoughts and emotions while engaged in academic activities. This project focuses on improving student practice of self-regulation during problem-solving activities in two required second year engineering and mathematics courses. In engineering and mathematics, problems often have implicit constraints and requirements that are not easily identified by novice students. As a result, research is needed to understand how engineering and mathematics instructors can help students develop and activate their ability to self-regulate during problem-solving activities. To be effective problem-solvers, students must actively coordinate their understanding of the task at hand, their thoughts, and their motivation throughout the problem-solving activities. This three-year project will advance engineering and mathematics education theory and practice regarding engineering students’ self-regulation of thinking and motivation during engineering and math problem-solving activities. The distinct self-regulatory skills to be investigated include (1) students’ personal knowledge about the problem being solved (metacognitive knowledge about task), (2) students’ active and reflective coordination of cognitive processes in light of their metacognitive knowledge (self-regulation of cognition), and (3) students’ self-control of the motivation needed to maintain engagement during problem solving activities (self-regulation of motivation). The project will make three significant contributions. First, findings will broaden the limited knowledge about how students’ metacognitive knowledge about a task informs their cognitive and motivation self-regulatory processes in engineering and mathematics problem-solving activities. Second, by working directly with engineering and mathematics faculty to understand the implications of findings and develop new practices and tools that promote self-regulated learning, this project may advance problem-solving instruction. Third, because this research will develop, test, and implement new research protocols to assess students’ metacognitive knowledge about task and the strategies they use, new knowledge will contribute positively to future studies of students’ self-regulated learning in engineering and mathematics, as well as in other fields. Four research questions guide the study and a sequential mixed-methods research design involving quantitative and qualitative research methods will be used to develop complementary coarse and fine-grained understandings of students’ self-regulated cognition and self-regulated motivation during engineering and mathematics problem-solving activities. Coarse-grained understandings will be developed through analysis of quantitative data collected using validated self-report surveys (for example, Brief Regulation of Motivation Scale, BRoMS, and the Physics Metacognitive Inventory, PMI). Fine-grained understandings will be developed through analysis of qualitative data gathered via one-on-one interviews, think-aloud protocols, classroom observations, and course artifacts gathered in class. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program 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.