Student-centered entrepreneurial design education to foster engineering attitudes, identities, and motivations

在改善本科 STEM 教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI 计划）的支持下，该轨道 1 项目旨在检查学生的态度、身份和工程动机，以开发情境化的创业设计学习模块。创业教育不断发展，并成为培养工程和其他 STEM 领域具有创业技能和创业意识的毕业生的教育平台。在工程领域，创业教育计划 (EEP) 通过课程和课外活动提供创业环境的体验，帮助未来的工程师在现代创新经济中具有竞争力。研究证据支持 EEP 对各种学生学习成果和创业态度的益处，并指出对学生保留率的次要积极影响。尽管有这些基于研究的证据并且在国家报告中得到了显着提及，但创业教育计划需要大量资源，这限制了其在资源有限的机构中的广泛实施。然而，工程设计和创业之间的相似之处强调了在资源有限的机构中整合设计和创业教育的可能性。拟议的项目利用创业和设计教育作为加州州立大学富勒顿分校 (CSUF) 的教学平台，以改善本科生对工程的态度和动机。该项目遵循基于资产的方法来创造学习体验，重视 HSI 学生通过其不同的背景和现实生活经验为教育环境带来的东西。具体来说，这项工作以以下具体目标为指导： 目标 1：在构建情境化创业设计学习模块之前，检查影响学生的态度、身份和工程动机的详细因素；目标2：在工程设计入门课程中开发和实施情境化创业设计学习模块；目标 3：对创业设计学习模块的影响进行形成性和总结性评估。该项目将使用定性焦点小组和定量学生调查作为数据源，采用多种方法来检验研究问题。 1）哪些因素影响学生对工程的态度、认同和动机； 2）学生参与创业设计学习模块对工程的态度、身份和动机以何种方式和程度受到影响？这项工作将植根于有关衡量学生动机、工程态度、工程身份和其他基于证据的最佳实践的相关文献。该项目预计将深入了解少数族裔背景的学生的态度和动机，并为这些学生构建情境化的学习模块。该项目的成果将作为研讨会交付，以支持不同类型的教育工作者的教学。 HSI 计划旨在加强本科生 STEM 教育并建设 HSI 的能力。 HSI 计划支持的项目还将产生有关如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to examine student attitudes, identities, and motivations for engineering to develop contextualized entrepreneurial design learning modules. Entrepreneurship education continues to grow and become established as an educational platform for developing entrepreneurially skilled and entrepreneurially minded graduates in engineering and other STEM fields. In engineering, entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) provide experiential exposure to the entrepreneurial environment through curricular and co-curricular offerings, that prepare future engineers to be competitive in the modern-day innovation economy. Research evidence supports the benefits of EEPs on a variety of student learning outcomes and attitudes about entrepreneurship, and notes a secondary positive impact on student retention. Despite this research-based evidence and a notable mention in national reports, entrepreneurship education programs require significant resources, which limits their broad implementation at resource-limited institutions. However, the parallels between engineering design and entrepreneurship underscore the possibility of integrating design and entrepreneurship education at institutions with limited resources. The proposed project leverages entrepreneurship and design education as an instructional platform at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) to improve attitudes and motivations for engineering among undergraduate students.The project follows an asset-based approach to create learning experiences that value what students at an HSI bring to the educational environment through their diverse backgrounds, and real-life experiences. Specifically, the work is guided by the following specific aims: Aim 1: examine detailed factors that impact students’ attitudes, identities, and motivations for engineering prior to building contextualized entrepreneurial design learning modules; Aim 2: develop and implement contextualized entrepreneurial design learning modules in introductory engineering design courses; and Aim 3: perform formative and summative assessments on the impacts of entrepreneurial design learning modules. Using qualitative focus groups and quantitative student surveys as the data source, the project will use a multi-methods approach to examine the research questions. 1) What factors affect students’ attitudes, identities, and motivations for engineering; and 2) in what ways and to what extent are students’ attitudes, identities, and motivations toward engineering impacted by their engagement in the entrepreneurial design learning modules? The work will be rooted in pertinent literature on measures of student motivations, engineering attitudes, engineering identities, and other evidence-based best practices. The project is expected to provide an in-depth understanding of student attitudes and motivations from minoritized backgrounds, and build contextualized learning modules for these students. The project outcomes will be delivered as workshops to support a diverse set of educators in their teaching. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.