Developing and Cultivating Meta-Cognitive Strategies to Invoke Conceptual Knowledge Relevant to Engineering Problem Solving

本研究的重点是在静力学基础工程学科中发展元认知策略。关于解决问题的文献表明，即使学生理解了解决特定问题所必需的概念，这些知识，孤立地，也不足以保证成功。组织解决问题的任务和检索适当的概念性知识的策略也是必要的。PI之前对静力学概念理解的调查，基于对学生解决问题努力的观察，导致了评估这种理解的初步方法的发展。项目建议开发和测试候选元认知策略在帮助学生在构建解决方案时学习整合概念元素方面的有效性。pi还将监测学生是否掌握相关的基础概念知识。此外，拟议的研究旨在开发培养学生在课堂上和课外非正式学生群体中使用这些策略的能力的方法。这项建议包括发展一种新的以计算机为基础的方法来记录学生解决问题的情况。本计划亦会利用科技，将课堂交流系统扩展至元认知策略的课堂评估，以提升学习效果。

The proposed research focuses on developing metacognitive strategies in the foundational engineering subject of Statics. The literature on problem-solving indicates that even if students understand the concepts necessary to solving particular problems, that knowledge, in isolation, is not sufficient to guarantee success. Strategies for organizing the problem-solving task, and for retrieving the appropriate conceptual knowledge, are also necessary. The PI's previous investigations of conceptual understanding in Statics, based on observations of students' problem solving efforts, led to the development of a preliminary method for assessing that understanding. The PIs propose to develop and test the effectiveness of candidate metacognitive strategies in helping students learn to integrate conceptual elements while constructing solutions. The PIs will also monitor whether students possess the relevant underlying conceptual knowledge. In addition, the proposed research seeks to develop methods for cultivating student ability to use such strategies, both in the classroom and in informal groups of students outside of class. The proposal includes the development of a new computer-based methodology for recording problem solving of students. The proposed project will also make use of technology to enhance learning through their extension of the Classroom Communication Systems to the in-class assessment of metacognitive strategies.