Research Initiation: Predicting Student Success and Persistence in Early Engineering Coursework Using Real-Time Changes in Emotion

本研究将探讨工科教育中持续与留存的系统性问题。在全国范围内，大学生在本科工程专业的成功通常会受到第一年严格的工程课程学习的阻碍。学生们经常会突然发现，早期的工程课程特别具有挑战性，因为它们的节奏很快，而且必须掌握的具有挑战性的技术概念范围很广。影响学生表现的一个主要因素是他们对自己有能力取得成功的信念。然而，他们的自信心下降和其他心理健康挑战最终导致许多人退出工程学。这个研究启动项目旨在通过确定影响学生信念的关键因素来服务于国家利益，并能够预测他们在本科工程项目中的成功和坚持性。特别重要的是驱动学生每天信心变化的心理压力源，以及这种变化如何影响学生的毅力，特别是在代表性不足的群体中。这项研究的结果将为制定干预策略提供参考，这些策略最终可以提高全国工程项目的留存率。这一结果与NSF旨在推动更多、更强大、更多样化的学生加入国家STEM工作队伍的倡议非常一致。总体目标是在工科学生的心理状态(自我效能、情绪和动机)与其他主要变量(包括时间、人口统计学、课程内容的严格性和心理压力源)之间建立因果联系。研究方法将采用半天至半周的学生心理状态的经验抽样(使用手机评估)。这些抽样调查将反复征求学生的情绪状态和其他因素，这些因素可能是辍学的前沿指标。民意调查将利用经过验证的调查工具，以便其他机构的研究人员可以复制这些研究努力。这些数据将使用成熟的统计方法进行分析，以提供以下解释：(1)哪些学生自我效能感和情绪指标随着时间的推移而波动；(2)特定课程主题的难度如何与学生自我效能感的变化有关；(3)哪些特定课程方面和心理应激源主要决定了学生的自我效能感；以及(4)情绪和自我效能感的日常变化是否与学生的人口统计数据有关。这些结果将使研究小组能够科学地了解学生的情绪波动如何扰乱(或源于)他们在早期工程课程中的表现。从长远来看，研究工作可能最终导致(A)增强兴趣和动力，(B)提高工程设计的坚持性，(C)根据高危人群的独特背景开发新的预警和干预系统。具有挑战性的一年级工程课程可以修改，以更好地符合早期工程专业学生的心理需求，这些学生难以适应大学生活方式。在专业发展方面，将在心理学的一名教师导师的指导下，向三名土木工程系教授理论知识和功能社会科学研究技能，这三所学院都位于迈阿密大学。这个项目为这两个不同学科的研究人员提供了一个独特的机会来合作解决一个多学科的问题。这个奖项反映了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 research will address the systemic problem of persistence and retention in engineering education. Nationwide, college students' success in undergraduate engineering programs is commonly hampered by rigorous first-year engineering coursework. Students often abruptly discover that early engineering courses are especially challenging due to their rapid pace and the wide breadth of challenging technical concepts that must be mastered. A major influence governing students' performance is their belief in their own capability to succeed. However, their waning self-confidence and other mental health challenges eventually lead many to withdraw from engineering. This research initiation project aims to serve the national interest by identifying critical factors that affect students' beliefs and can predict their success and persistence in undergraduate engineering programs. Of particular significance are the psychological stressors that drive changes in students' confidence on a daily basis, and how such changes affect students' persistence, especially in underrepresented groups. The results of the research will inform the development of intervention strategies that could ultimately improve retention rates in engineering programs throughout the country. This outcome is well aligned with NSF's initiatives to drive a larger, stronger, and more diverse stream of students into the country's STEM workforce.The overall goal is to establish causal links between engineering students' state of mind (self-efficacy, emotion, and motivation) and other major variables including time, demographics, rigor of course content, and psychological stressors. The research approach will utilize experience sampling (using mobile phone assessment) of students' psychological state on a semi-daily to semi-weekly basis. These sampling polls will repeatedly solicit students' states of emotion and other factors that may be leading-edge indicators of dropout. The polls will utilize validated survey instruments such that the research efforts can be replicated by researchers at other institutions. The data will be analyzed using well-established statistical methods to provide explanations of: (1) which indicators of students' self-efficacy and emotion fluctuate over time, (2) how the difficulty of specific course topics relates to changes in students' self-efficacy, (3) which course-specific aspects and psychological stressors primarily dictate students' self-efficacy, and (4) whether daily changes in emotion and self-efficacy are correlated to student demographics. These results will enable the research team to scientifically understand how students' emotional fluctuations disrupt (or stem from) their performance in early engineering coursework. In the long-term, the research efforts could ultimately lead to (a) enhanced interest and motivation, (b) increased persistence in engineering, and (c) the development of novel early warning and intervention systems tailored to the unique backgrounds of at-risk demographic cohorts. The challenging first-year engineering curricula could be revised to better align with the psychological demands of early engineering students who struggle to adapt to college lifestyle. In terms of professional development, theoretical knowledge and functional social science research skills will be instilled in three Civil Engineering faculty under the guidance of a faculty mentor from Psychology, all located at the University of Miami. This project represents a unique opportunity for researchers in these two disparate disciplines to collaborate to address a multidisciplinary problem.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.