Collaborative Research: Understanding Students' Development and Deployment of Lifelong Learning Skills

该项目是一个合作的努力，涉及富兰克林W。奥林工程学院和加州理工州立大学正在努力提高STEM教育界对学生如何培养自我导向和终身学习所需的技能和态度的理解。 具体而言，研究人员会探讨一年级和二年级学生的学习概念;衡量学生在学习过程中的控制感和责任感;以及评估学生运用自我调节学习策略应对不同学习机会和挑战的技能。该项目旨在确定（1）进入STEM学生的自我导向学习技能和态度如何表征，（2）STEM学生的学习观念，学习动机和自我导向技能在本科课程的前两年如何变化，（3）学生的初始属性和自我导向学习成长的内部和跨机构差异，（4）学生的初始属性和自我导向学习发展的性别差异;（5）学生如何评价学习经验与自我导向学习发展的关系。该项目借鉴了现有的动机和自我调节的社会认知理论，以及研究人员在自我支持学习和STEM环境中自我导向学习的当前研究方面的成功实践。更广泛的影响包括加强对学生如何成为自我指导的理解，这将为促进终身学习者的出现的课程开发提供信息。

The project is a collaborative effort involving the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and the California Polytechnic State University that is working to improve the STEM educational community's understanding of how students develop the skills and attitudes necessary for self-directed and lifelong learning. Specifically, the investigators are examining first- and second-year students' conceptions of learning; measuring students' sense of control and responsibility in their learning processes; and evaluating students' skill in using self-regulated learning strategies to respond to diverse learning opportunities and challenges. The project aims to determine (1) how entering STEM students are characterized with respect to self-directed learning skills and attitudes, (2) how STEM students' conceptions of learning, motivations toward learning, and self-directed skills change in the first two years of their undergraduate programs, (3) what are the within- and across-institution differences in students' initial attributes and self-directed learning growth, (4) what are the gender differences in students' initial attributes and self-directed learning growth, and (5) how students evaluate learning experiences with respect to their own self-directed learning development. The project draws upon existing social-cognitive theories of motivation and self-regulation, as well as the investigators' successful practice in autonomy-supportive pedagogies and current studies of self-directed learning in STEM environments. The broader impacts include the enhanced understanding of how students become self-directing, which will inform curriculum development that facilitates the emergence of lifelong learners.