Collaborative Research: Research Initiation: Defining Engineering Quantitative Literacy

雇主和教育工作者对美国学生的量化素养水平表示了越来越多的担忧，量化素养通常被理解为包括计算技能以及解释、推理和交流量化信息和数据的能力。这些能力对工程学来说至关重要，但在学生开始接受工程学教育时，对量化素养的独特方面缺乏理解。这个项目旨在定义一年级工科学生对数量素养的期望，并创建一种衡量数量素养的方法，这将使教育工作者能够更好地为未来的工程学学生成功做好准备。该项目的主要目标将是获得证据，为未来的评估工具开发一个学生模型，旨在衡量一年级工科学生的数量素养。使用以证据为中心的设计框架，研究小组将通过几项研究，阐明评估一年级工科学生数量素养的学生模型。研究小组将对工程入门课程进行内容分析。接下来，他们将对工程学入门教师进行后续调查，以更具体地解决学生预期的学习深度问题。然后，将对不同类型的一年级学生进行小样本访谈，以确定他们有哪些机会发展他们的量化读写能力。最后，结果将在工程学的特定背景下定义量化素养。这一定义随后可用于未来的项目，以制定量化素养的测量和教学方法，以支持工程学学生发展这一关键技能。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。

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.