Collaborative Research: Research Initiation: Defining Engineering Quantitative Literacy

雇主和教育工作者越来越关注美国学生的定量素养水平，通常认为这包括计算技能和解释，推理和交流定量信息和数据的能力。这些能力对于工程学来说是至关重要的，然而，在学生开始工程教育时，对定量素养的独特方面缺乏了解。该项目旨在定义一年级工程专业学生的量化素养期望，并创建一种衡量量化素养的方法，这将使教育工作者能够更好地为未来的工程专业学生的成功做好准备。 本计画的主要目标是取得证据，以发展学生模型，作为未来评估工具，以衡量一年级工程系学生的量化素养。研究小组将使用以证据为中心的设计框架，通过几项研究阐述一个学生模型，用于评估一年级工程专业学生的定量素养。研究小组将对工程学入门课程进行内容分析。接下来，他们将对入门工程教师进行后续调查，以更具体地解决学生预期的学习深度。然后，一小部分不同的一年级学生将接受采访，以确定他们有机会发展自己的定量识字能力。最后，结果将在工程的特定背景下定义量化素养。这个定义可以在未来的项目中使用，以发展量化素养和教学方法，支持工程专业学生发展这一关键技能。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是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的支持。

Employers and educators have expressed increasing concern about the level of American students' quantitative literacy, which is generally understood to include computational skills and abilities to interpret, reason, and communicate quantitative information and data. These abilities are critical for engineering, yet there is a lack of understanding of the unique aspects of quantitative literacy needed as students begin their engineering education. This project aims to define the quantitative literacy expectations of first-year engineering students and create a means for measuring quantitative literacy, which will allow educators to better prepare future engineering students for success. The main goal of this project will be to obtain evidence to develop a student model for future assessment instruments intended to measure first-year engineering students' quantitative literacy. Using the Evidence Centered Designed Framework, the research team will articulate a Student Model for assessing first-year engineering students' quantitative literacy through several studies. The research team will conduct a content analysis of introductory engineering curricula. Next, they will administer a follow-up survey of introductory engineering faculty to address more specifically the depth of learning expected of students. Then, a small sample of diverse first-year students will be interviewed to determine the opportunities they had to develop their quantitative literacy abilities. Finally, the results will define quantitative literacy within the specific context of engineering. This definition can then be used in future projects to develop measures of quantitative literacy and instructional approaches that support engineering students' development of this critical skill.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.