Standard Research: Developing Ethical STEM Research Competency and Self-Efficacy in High School and College Engineering Courses

该项目旨在开发支持高中和本科阶段STEM伦理实践的教学材料，以提高学生在STEM伦理研究方面的成果和自我效能感。通过在本科工程课程中设计和实施STEM研究伦理模块，该项目生成了与数千名工程本科生的伦理知识、推理技能、态度和实践相关的数据。这个快照反过来又为高中STEM教师提供了为期三周的丰富机会。与大学教师和研究生合作，支持高中教师开发有关道德问题的学习模块，并在高中环境中实施。项目数据还指导有针对性的干预措施的创建，这些干预措施将在二、三、四年级的工程课程中使用。然后，通过测试和调查工程专业学生的顶点课程，获得第二个数据快照，以提供工程专业学生在处理STEM伦理问题方面的能力和自信的广泛概述，以确定各种干预措施的有效性，并改进未来的干预措施。这个数据驱动的项目采用混合方法，通过开发和使用一套工具来衡量道德能力和自我效能的认知、情感和行为方面，从而更好地了解道德干预在学生学业发展各个阶段的影响。本研究利用重复的测量方法和纵向的维度，生成有关伦理能力、伦理自我效能感的发展，以及胜任力、自我效能感与教学干预之间关系的数据。专为中学和大学课堂设计的干预措施以微观插入道德内容的最佳实践为基础，这些实践实用，并帮助学生了解技术能力如何适应更广泛的社会、经济和环境背景。顶点数据收集还提供了其他经验（如本科研究、实习、无国界工程师）和课程（如人文、社会科学和商业课程）对道德发展的影响的衡量标准。该项目的第二个好处是改善课堂时间和其他教育资源的分配，为STEM伦理教育融入STEM课程的方式提供信息。本项目也得到了NSF HSI和DRK-12项目的支持。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM参与，并在HSI进行能力建设。探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。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。

This project aims to develop instructional materials that support ethical practices in STEM at the high school and undergraduate levels to improve student outcomes and self-efficacy related to ethical STEM research. Through the design and implementation of STEM research ethics modules in an undergraduate engineering curriculum, the project generates data related to the ethical knowledge, reasoning skills, attitudes, and practices of several thousand engineering undergraduate students. This snapshot in turn informs the development of a three-week enrichment opportunity for high school STEM teachers. Working with university faculty and graduate students, high school teachers are supported in developing learning modules on ethical issues and implementing them in the high school context. Project data also guides the creation of targeted interventions that will be used in second, third, and fourth year engineering courses. A second data snapshot is then taken by testing and surveying engineering students in their capstone courses to provide a broad overview of the competence and self-confidence that engineering students have in dealing with ethical STEM issues, to determine the efficacy of various interventions, and to improve future interventions. This data-driven project uses a mixed-methods approach to generate a better understanding of the impact of ethics interventions at various points in a student's academic development by developing and using a set of instruments to measure cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of ethical competency and self-efficacy. Utilizing repeated measures and possessing a longitudinal dimension, the project generates data about the development of ethical competency, ethical self-efficacy, and the relationships between competency, self-efficacy, and the instructional interventions. The interventions designed for secondary and tertiary classrooms build on best practices for micro-insertion of ethics content that are practical and help students understand how technical competencies fit within broader social, economic, and environmental contexts. The capstone data collection also provides a measure of the impact of other experiences (e.g., undergraduate research, internships, Engineers Without Borders) and courses (e.g., humanities, social science, and business courses) on ethical development. The project has a secondary benefit of improving the allocation of class time and other educational resources to inform the ways in which STEM ethics education can be integrated into STEM coursework.This project is also supported by the NSF HSI and DRK-12 programs. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.