CAREER: Characterizing, Understanding, and Integrating Complex Problem Solving in Engineering Education

这个职业项目将研究工程专业的学生如何？学会解决复杂的问题。随着全球竞争力和技术变革的快速步伐，工程师必须学会适应复杂和快速变化的问题解决环境，以及在创新中保持有效。本科研究和行业经验为我们的学生学习这些基本的、基于问题的、具有全球竞争力的技能提供了坚实的基础。然而，尽管这样的经验提供了许多好处，并使工程专业的学生开始解决现实世界的复杂问题的实践，有两个主要的陷阱：(a)缺乏对学生的研究和实证研究？学习成果作为参与这些经验的结果，并且(b)大多数工程专业学生在本科教育期间没有接触到这些经验（对于本科研究经验尤其如此，只有最优秀的学生才能被选中参加）。我们的首要目标是描述和理解现实世界工程环境中的复杂问题解决方法，将这些基本的问题解决技能整合到工程教育环境中。在六个研究问题的指导下，预计：(a)对现实世界的研究和基于行业的问题的分类将导致对复杂问题解决领域和过程的理解和表征；(b)学生？学习成果（认知、情感、社会和专业）将被评估，以了解不同的问题如何产生不同的结果和认知能力，(c)创新的工具和评估工具，可以跨机构、项目、部门和经验转移，将被开发，(d)在工程教育中实施复杂问题解决的策略将被调查和提出。我们将采用混合方法有效地对本科生研究和行业问题进行分类，并评估工程专业的学生。学习成果（包括绩效和成就动机、自我效能、解决问题和批判性思维能力、职业认同、适应性专业知识和认知灵活性）在这两种高度提升的经历中。以研究成果和发现为基础，整合良好的教育组成部分将涉及教学材料的开发、实施和评估，重点是基于研究和行业经验，在三种情况下转移复杂问题的解决方案：(1)JMU的本科课程？(2)面向女学生的高中水平工程课程，(3)面向学生和教师教育者的K-12教育。

This CAREER project will research how engineering students?s learn complex problem solving. With global competitiveness and the rapid pace of technological change, engineers must learn to adapt to complex and rapidly changing problem solving environments as well as remain effective in innovation. Undergraduate research and industry experiences provide a strong basis for our students to learn these essential, problem-based, and globally competitive skills. Yet, although such experiences offer many benefits and enable engineering students to begin the practice of solving real-world complex problems, there are two main pitfalls: (a) lack of research and empirical studies on students? learning outcomes as a result of participating in these experiences, and (b) the majority of engineering students do not get exposed to these experiences during their undergraduate education (this is particularly true for undergraduate research experiences, which only the best students get selected to participate in). Our overarching goal is to characterize and understand complex problem solving in real-world engineering settings as a means of integrating these essential problem solving skills in engineering education settings. Guided by six research questions, it is anticipated that: (a) classification of real-world research- and industry-based problems will lead to a understanding and characterizing complex problem solving domains and processes, (b) students? learning outcomes (cognitive, affective, social, and professional) will be assessed in order to understand how different problems enable different outcomes and cognitive abilities, (c) innovative instruments and assessment tools, that can be transferred across institutions, programs, departments, and experiences, will be developed, and (d) strategies for implementing complex problem solving in engineering education will be investigated and presented. We will employ a mixed-methods approach to effectively classify undergraduate research and industry problems as well as assess engineering students? learning outcomes (including performance and achievement motivation, self-efficacy, problem solving and critical thinking skills, professional identity, adaptive expertise and cognitive flexibility) during these two highly promoted experiences. Grounded on the results and findings of the research, the well-integrated educational component will involve the development, implementation, and evaluation of instructional material focused on transferring complex problem solving, based on research and industry experiences, in three settings: (1) undergraduate courses within JMU?s engineering program, (2) high school level engineering course for female students, and (3) K-12 education focused on students and teacher educators.