A Cognitive Study of Modeling during Problem-solving: Accelerating progress toward expert-like performance

这个工程教育研究项目的目标是开发教学工具，这些工具可以用来提高学生在解决问题的过程中对工程系统建模的能力。这个项目是在基础工程课程之一的静力学中进行的，在这个课程中，学生开始发展他们的工程问题解决和分析技能。静力学中的建模步骤要求学生阅读问题，抽象出要分析的系统模型，通常是自由体图，然后使用平衡方程创建系统的数学模型。静力学是基础性的，不仅因为它是学生对建模过程的介绍，而且还因为基本上所有涉及分析的工程问题解决都会发生类似的建模过程。该项目将研究建模过程，并确定学生必须克服的主要障碍，以提高熟练程度。然后，通过使用所学知识以及静态教育工作者的经验来设计、实施和评估加速学生成长为更专业的问题解决技能的教学工具，并对其进行设计、实施和评估。这项工作受到工程教育者的发现和教育心理学的研究成果和方法的启发，将产生经过验证的教学工具，这些工具直接与解决问题过程中有效建模的主要障碍联系在一起。因此，本项目开发的方法和教学工具将在工程教育中具有广泛的适用性。此外，如果能够更有效地支持学生在初始教学过程中准确和有效地获取建模过程的知识，就有可能加速他们的整体学术发展。

The objective of this engineering education research project is the development of pedagogical tools that can be used to enhance the abilities of students to model engineering systems as part of their problem solving process. The project is undertaken in one of the foundational engineering courses, Statics, in which students begin to develop their engineering problem solving and analysis skills. The modeling steps in Statics require students to read the problem, abstract a model of the system to be analyzed, typically a free-body diagram, and then to create a mathematical model of the system using the equilibrium equations. Statics is foundational not only because it is the students' introduction to the modeling processes but also because analogous modeling processes take place in essentially all engineering problem solving that involves analysis. The project will study the modeling process and identify the major barriers that students must overcome to develop proficiency. Then by using what is learned, along with the experience of Statics educators, to design, implement, and evaluate pedagogical tools to accelerate students' growth toward more expert-like problem-solving skills will be designed, implemented and evaluated. The work, which is informed by the findings of Engineering educators and by research findings and methods from Educational Psychology, will produce proven pedagogical tools that are tied directly to the major barriers to effective modeling during problem solving.Accordingly, the methodologies and pedagogical tools developed in this project will have wide applicability in engineering education. Furthermore, if students' efforts to accurately and efficiently acquire knowledge of the modeling process during initial instruction can be supported more effectively; there is the potential to accelerate their overall academic development.