Instructional Sequences in Pre-College Engineering Education

这一工程研究项目将考察工程专业初学者的教学设计的认知方面。一系列严格的实证实验将调查随着大学预科学生从基础工程知识领域的新手发展到有能力的问题解决者，动态适应工程表示、练习和反馈的教学序列。研究团队将在一组随机对照实验研究中使用混合的定量和定性方法，在外展项目中对大学预科学生进行研究。该项目将接触到1000多名大学预科学生，其中包括很大一部分少数族裔学生，他们将参与亚利桑那州拟议的实验。项目参与是否具有显著促进预科学生发展的潜力？工程问题解决能力，以及自我效能感和对工程的兴趣。此外，该项目的调查结果将为在全国范围内制定和实施有效的外展计划提供信息，从而大大提高其效力，以吸引代表不足的群体投身工程职业。

This engineering research project will examine the cognitive aspects of instructional designs for pre-college students who are novices in engineering. A set of rigorous empirical experiments will investigate instructional sequences that dynamically adapt engineering representations, practice, and feedback as pre-college students advance from novices to competent problem solvers in a basic engineering knowledge domain. The research team will use mixed quantitative and qualitative methods within a set of randomized controlled experimental studies with pre-college students in outreach programs. This project will reach over 1,000 pre-college students, including a large portion of minority students, who will participate in the proposed experiments in Arizona. The project participation has the potential to significantly promote the pre-college students? engineering problem solving skills, as well as self-efficacy and interest in engineering. In addition, the findings of this project will inform the development and implementation of effective outreach programs nationwide, thus substantially increasing their effectiveness to attract underrepresented groups to engineering careers.