Leveraging Lived Experiences of Nontraditional Engineering Students to Promote Engaged Student Learning in Technical Classrooms

利用非传统工程专业学生的生活经验促进学生在技术课堂上的积极学习

• 批准号: 2315763
• 负责人: Ean Ng
• 金额: $ 30.86万
• 依托单位: Oregon State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-15 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315763&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Leveraging; Lived; Experiences; Nontraditional; Engineering

This project aims to serve the national interest by leveraging the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students to increase engaged student learning for all engineering students. Nontraditional students (NTS) are defined as students who satisfy at least one of the seven criteria provided by the National Center for Education Statistics or are older than 24 years of age in an undergraduate program. NTES typically include adult learners, veterans, and women. The population of nontraditional engineering students is expected to increase and will become a significant part of the engineering student population. This project will advance the understanding of the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students as an asset and focus on the importance of leveraging their strengths for engineering education. This project will identify the characteristics of nontraditional engineering students’ lived experiences that can be leveraged, create cooperative learning activities that leverage their lived experiences to increase engaged student learning, and create open resources for other STEM educators. As an IUSE program Engaged Student Learning Track Level 1 project, this project serves the IUSE program’s intent of increasing student engagement and learning in STEM by broadening the participation of nontraditional engineering students in STEM education and STEM fields, and by providing an alternative pedagogy to increase traditional students’ awareness and understanding of the need for diversity and appreciation of diversity in engineering teams.The project will use a mixed-methods approach that includes semi-structured interviews, surveys, instructor observations, and minute-papers to answer two major research questions: (1) What are the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students that can be leveraged in undergraduate engineering classrooms to increase engaged learning for all students? and (2) How do we leverage these lived experiences in undergraduate engineering classrooms through cooperative learning to increase engaged learning of all students? A group of engineering educators will implement the cooperative learning activities developed through this project to evaluate the effectiveness and ease of implementation. Upon completion, this project will contribute to the undergraduate engineering education body of knowledge through: (1) exploring nontraditional engineering student education from an asset-based perspective; (2) identifying the themes and attributes of nontraditional engineering students’ lived experiences that can propagate future research in nontraditional engineering students; (3) expanding the assessment instrument in measuring engaged student learning at the in-class activity level; (4) creating an alternative instructional method by developing methodologies to create cooperative learning activities that leverage nontraditional engineering students’ lived experiences and developing a set of cooperative in-class activities based on this methodology that is used to validate the methodology. The major deliverables from this project will be (1) identifying characteristics and attributes of the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students (2) an open handbook of cooperative learning activities developed through this project, and methodologies to develop additional cooperative learning activities that leverage the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students to increase engaged student learning. The deliverables will be disseminated through conferences, demonstrative workshops, virtual workshops, and publication of the handbook as an open resource. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.

该项目旨在通过利用非传统工程专业学生的生活经验来增加所有工程专业学生的参与性学习，从而为国家利益服务。非传统学生（NTS）定义为满足国家教育统计中心提供的七个标准中的至少一个或在本科课程中年龄超过24岁的学生。NTES通常包括成人学习者、退伍军人和女性。预计非传统工程专业学生的数量将会增加，并将成为工程专业学生人数的重要组成部分。该项目将促进对非传统工程学生生活经验的理解，并将重点放在利用他们的优势进行工程教育的重要性上。该项目将确定可以利用的非传统工程学生生活经历的特征，创建合作学习活动，利用他们的生活经历来增加学生的学习参与度，并为其他STEM教育工作者创造开放资源。作为IUSE项目参与学生学习轨道1级项目，该项目通过扩大非传统工程专业学生在STEM教育和STEM领域的参与，并通过提供另一种教学法来提高传统学生对工程团队多样性需求的认识和理解，从而服务于IUSE项目增加学生对STEM的参与和学习的意图。该项目将采用混合方法，包括半结构化访谈、调查、教师观察和会议记录，以回答两个主要研究问题：(1)哪些非传统工程专业学生的生活经历可以在本科工程课堂上加以利用，以提高所有学生的参与性学习？(2)我们如何通过合作学习在本科工程课堂中利用这些生活经验来提高所有学生的参与性学习？一组工程教育工作者将实施通过本项目开发的合作学习活动，以评估实施的有效性和便利性。本项目完成后，将通过以下方式对本科工程教育知识体系做出贡献：(1)从资产视角探索非传统工程学生教育；(2)识别非传统工程专业学生生活经历的主题和属性，这些主题和属性可以传播非传统工程专业学生未来的研究；(3)在课堂活动层面拓展衡量学生投入学习的评估工具；(4)通过开发方法来创建利用非传统工程学生生活经验的合作学习活动，并基于该方法开发一套用于验证该方法的课堂合作活动，从而创建一种替代教学方法。本项目的主要成果将包括：(1)识别非传统工程学生生活经验的特征和属性(2)通过本项目开发的合作学习活动的开放手册，以及开发利用非传统工程学生生活经验的额外合作学习活动的方法，以提高学生的参与性学习。可交付成果将通过会议、示范讲习班、虚拟讲习班和作为开放资源出版的手册进行传播。NSF IUSE: EDU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。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。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。