Assessing Cognitive Components of Design for Course-based Improvement

该项目正在开发、实施和评估评估工具和方法，以支持学生在电气和计算机工程设计及相关领域的持续改进。教育研究的发现表明，工程教育可以通过谨慎和仔细地评估重要的教育成果，并围绕课程和课程建立持续的改进循环来改进。工程教育最重要的目标之一是培养学生成功地解决大规模、结构不良的设计问题，这些问题是高级顶点设计项目课程和工程实践专业领域的典型问题。该项目利用认知科学和教学研究提供的专家功能知识来确定设计过程的关键方面。它正在开发多种度量和收集数据，以验证这些方面是设计技能的重要组成部分。从广义上讲，正在讨论的专业知识的组成部分是陈述性知识、程序性知识和元认知处理知识。这些都是由量化方法的发展来衡量设计的质量。陈述性知识（包括“事实”）倾向于随着经验的积累而构建和完善，其结构倾向于随着经验的积累而组织成更抽象的模式，从而使其能够自信地应用于更大范围的问题。程序性知识是了解如何有效地解决问题。元认知加工知识对于培养终身学习技能尤为重要。它是在学生学会广泛思考如何解决特定问题并寻求更好或更有效的方法以供将来使用的过程中发展起来的。这是需要计划、自我监督和反思的知识。它的增长是对教师刻意发展它的努力的回应。这种方法正在大二的设计课程和大四的项目设计课程中进行课堂测试，这两个工程领域是电子和计算机软件设计。参与的教师正在评估评估，撰写改进计划，并在三年内实施这些计划。该项目生产三种特色产品。首先，它对设计技能的各个组成部分进行评估，并得出可靠性和有效性的结论。第二，评估这些评估措施在基于课程的学生学习持续改进中的有效性。最后，大二学生在项目第一年的知识评估被用来预测他们在大四设计课程中的表现。

This project is developing, implementing, and evaluating assessment tools and methods that support continuous improvement in student preparation in electrical and computer engineering design and related areas. Educational research has developed findings which suggest that engineering education would be improved by deliberately and carefully assessing important educational outcomes and building continuous improvement loops around courses and curricula. One of the most important goals of engineering education is preparing students to succeed in developing solutions to large-scale, ill-structured design problems that are typical of senior capstone design project courses and the professional world of engineering practice. The project is using the knowledge of expert functioning provided by cognitive science and instructional research to identify crucial aspects of the design process. It is developing multiple measures and gathering data to verify that these aspects are significant components of design skill. In broad terms, the components of expertise that are being addressed are declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive processing knowledge. These are being illuminated by the development of quantitative ways to measure quality of design. Declarative knowledge (including "facts") tends to build and become refined with experience, and its structure tends to become organized in more abstract schemas with experience, allowing it to be applied confidently to a greater range of problems. Procedural knowledge is understanding how to address problems efficiently. Metacognitive processing knowledge is particularly significant for developing lifelong learning skills. It is developed as students learn to think broadly about how they are solving particular problems and seek better or more efficient approaches for future use. This is knowledge that requires planning, self-monitoring, and reflection. Its growth responds to deliberate efforts to develop it by instructors. The approach is being class tested in sophomore design courses and senior project design courses in two engineering areas, electronic and computer software design. Participating instructors are evaluating the assessments, writing improvement plans, and implementing these over a period of three years. The project is producing three distinctive products. First, it is producing assessments of various components of design skill, with reliability and validity findings. Second, it is evaluating the effectiveness of these assessment measures for use in course-based continuous improvement of student learning. Finally, the assessments of sophomore knowledge in the first year of the project is being used to predict their performance in their senior design courses.