Research: Building on Student Academic Engineering Knowledge to Unlock their Potential to Become Professional Engineers

雇主对工程专业毕业生将他们在大学教育中获得的知识应用于现实世界问题的能力的担忧可能一直存在，因为大学一直在教育工程专业的学生。许多研究表明，通过真实世界，真实的机会，如工作整合的学习经验和模仿行业实践的顶点设计课程，培训学生更好地为专业实践做好准备。不幸的是，工作场所的环境因公司和职位而异，否定了学生可能遇到的所有工作场所和行业实践的任何概念。一些真实的学习实践无意中排除了那些生活环境阻止他们利用这种经验的学生。这个项目从一个不同的起点开始，因为重点是学生知道什么，如支持专业判断的理论或技能，可能会无意中掩盖知识本身的性质及其对学生学习的影响的探索。为了促进学生从教育环境到劳动力的过渡，我们需要更好地理解知识的组织原则，这些原则在将抽象理论与具体情况和应用联系起来时发挥作用。该项目将通过确定教师可以使用的教学方法来帮助学生更好地为从教育环境到劳动力的过渡做好准备，从而为工程师课程的形成研究做出贡献。更广泛地说，这个项目是重要的，因为它将解释学生如何学习什么构成的知识，它是如何建立的-一种技能，他们可以应用在任何知识为导向的背景下，包括专业工作。本研究的目的是调查本科工程专业的学生的能力，把在高等教育中获得的工程学科知识转化为专业设置，以解决复杂的设计问题。我们把这个过程称为知识动员。我们将应用一个前沿的多维概念框架来分析学习，称为合法性代码理论（LCT），以表征知识动员。我们将调查机械工程专业学生的知识动员实践，他们通过三种具有越来越多的开放式和多学科设计问题的背景，参与不同程度的开放式设计问题：1）初级设计导向课程，2）工程实习经验;和3）顶点设计经验。这项研究将有助于学生成功或不成功地调动知识的方式的基本知识。这个项目是创造性和原创性的，因为它将结合联合收割机LCT，在北美相对未使用的方法，与解释性定性方法，以提供深入的见解，从参与者揭示的组织原则，影响成功或不成功的动员知识的学生的理解水平的具体工程概念。这种知识结构的观点将建立理论的原因，为学生学习工程知识保持锁定在特定的学科，如流体力学或固体力学。本研究的成果将使教师更公开地引导学生在专业环境中的规范，价值观和以知识为导向的工程知识实践。成果包括一个专业发展计划，培养学生利用他们的工程知识来解决专业环境中的问题。与其他教授特定技能（如面试）的专业发展项目不同，该计划将开发一个专业的工程元认知思维，使他们能够超越工程理论和重新思考，组织现有的模型，使他们能够适应他们在面对新的和不确定的工程情况。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Employer concerns about engineering graduates’ ability to apply the knowledge they gained in university education to real-world problems have been around perhaps for as long as universities have been educating engineering students. Many studies suggest that training students through real-world, authentic opportunities such as work-integrated learning experiences and capstone design courses mimicking industry practices better prepare them for professional practice. Unfortunately, workplace contexts vary from company to company and position to position, negating any notion of mimicking all workplaces and industry practices students could encounter. Some authentic learning practices unintentionally exclude students whose life circumstances prevent them from taking advantage of such experiences. This project begins from a different starting point because a focus on what students know, such as theory or skills that support professional judgment, can inadvertently obscure exploration of the nature of knowledge itself and its effects on student learning. To facilitate students’ transitions from education settings into the workforce, we need a better understanding of the organizing principles of knowledge which come into play when linking abstract theory to specific situations and applications. This project will contribute to the Research in the Formation of Engineers program by identifying teaching approaches instructors can use to better prepare students for the transition from education settings to the workforce. More broadly, this project is significant because it will explain how students learn what constitutes knowledge and how it is built – a skill they can apply in any knowledge-oriented context including professional work.The purpose of this research is to investigate the ability for undergraduate engineering students to translate engineering disciplinary knowledge acquired in tertiary education into professional settings to solve complex design problems. We call this process knowledge mobilization. We will apply a cutting-edge multi-dimensional conceptual framework for analyzing learning called Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to characterize knowledge mobilization. We will investigate knowledge mobilization practices of mechanical engineering students who engage in varying levels of open-ended design problems through three contexts having increasing levels of open-ended and multidisciplinary design problems: 1) a junior level design-oriented course, 2) an engineering internship experience; and 3) a capstone design experience. The research will contribute fundamental knowledge on the ways in which students successfully or unsuccessfully mobilize knowledge. This project is creative and original in that it will combine LCT, a relatively unused approach in North America, with interpretive qualitative methodologies to provide in-depth insights from participants to reveal the organizing principles that affect successful or unsuccessful mobilization of knowledge independent of the students’ level of understanding of the specific engineering concept. This knowledge structure perspective will build theory into the causes for student learning of engineering knowledge to remain locked within specific disciplines, such as fluid mechanics or solid mechanics. The outcomes of this research will enable instructors to orientate students more overtly towards the norms, values, and knowledge-oriented practices of engineering knowledge in professional settings. Outcomes include a professional development program to train students to use their engineering knowledge to solve problems in a professional setting. Unlike other professional development programs that teach specific skills such as interviewing, this program will develop a professional engineering metacognitive mindset to enable them to think beyond engineering theory and re-organize existing models so that they can adapt them in the face of novel and uncertain engineering situations.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.