MCA: Divergent Thinking Skills Training in Undergraduate Engineering Education: An Investigation of Stakeholder Perceptions

本项目旨在通过在本科工程教育中提高学生的发散性思维能力，服务于国家利益。工科学生被训练为找到一个明确定义的问题的正确解决方案（趋同思维）。然而，在工程人员队伍中，他们被要求跳出框框（发散思维），为21世纪不明确的挑战找到新的解决方案。因此，工程教育与工程实践之间存在着严重的差距。目前，在工程学位课程中，很少有机会让学生练习、发展和应用他们的发散思维技能。本项目将研究工程教育利益相关者群体对发散性思维的看法，确定发散性思维的障碍，开发评估学生发散性思维技能的方法，并开发课程内容以提高这些技能。利益相关者群体将包括本科工程专业学生、工程教师、大学管理人员和工程专业人员。项目成果和成果将通过工程教育会议的参与、地方和国家研讨会、期刊出版物、博客文章和知识共享许可来传播。该项目的总体目标是开发教学材料和评估方法，以帮助学生学习和练习发散性思维技能。本研究旨在解决以下研究问题：学生在学位课程中对发散性思维技能的体验是什么？工程学院如何在课堂上培养学生的发散性思维能力？雇主如何从工程师的发散性思维技能中获益？本科工程教育中发散性思维技能的培养对管理者有什么价值？使用先验现象学方法，该项目计划收集和分析来自每个利益相关者群体成员的深度访谈数据。通过有目的的抽样，来自广泛的工程学科的每个利益相关者群体的不同群体的成员的观点将被检查。发散性思维的评估工具将基于托伦斯创造性思维测试开发。访谈的结果将用于研究如何在学习科学中采用脚手架机制来支持学生发散性思维技能的学习和教学材料的开发。这个MCA奖是由NSF的IUSE: EHR项目资助的，该项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。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 serve the national interest by improving students’ divergent thinking skills in undergraduate engineering education. Engineering students are trained to find one correct solution to a well-defined problem (convergent thinking). However, in the engineering workforce they are asked to think outside of the box (divergent thinking) to find a new solution to ill-defined challenges of the 21st century. Thus, there is a critical gap between engineering education and its practice. Currently, there are few opportunities in engineering degree programs for students to practice, develop, and apply their divergent thinking skills. This project will study the perceptions of divergent thinking in engineering education stakeholder groups, identify barriers to divergent thinking, develop methods to assess students’ divergent thinking skills, and develop course content to improve these skills. Stakeholder groups will include undergraduate engineering students, engineering faculty, university administrators, and engineering professionals. Project results and outcomes will be disseminated via engineering education conference participation, local and national workshops, journal publications, blog posts, and Creative Commons licensing.The overall goal of this project is to develop instructional materials and assessment methods that will help students learn and practice divergent thinking skills. This study intends to address the following research questions: What are the students’ experiences with divergent thinking skills during their degree program? How do engineering faculty develop students’ divergent thinking skills in their classes? How do employers benefit from divergent thinking skills of engineers? What value do administrators gain from the development of divergent thinking skills in undergraduate engineering education? Using a transcendental phenomenological approach, the project plans to collect and analyze in-depth interview data from members of each stakeholder group. Via purposive sampling, the perspectives of a diverse group of members from each of the stakeholder groups from a broad range of engineering disciplines will be examined. Assessment tools for divergent thinking will be developed based on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Results from the interviews will be used to inform the adaptation of scaffolding mechanisms in the learning sciences to support student learning of divergent thinking skills and the development of instructional materials. This MCA award is funded through NSF's IUSE: EHR Program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.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.