Research Initiation Grant: Improving Problem Solving in Electric Circuits using Cognitive Task Analysis

这项工程教育研究启动赠款将在工程和STEM教育教师之间建立伙伴关系，以研究如何更有效地教工程专业的学生如何成为他们学科的专家。 该项目将使用认知任务分析，从专家工程师的知识，教学生如何更好地解决常见的工程问题。 提出了一个坚实的实验设计，以确定认知任务分析可以帮助学生更快地过渡到专家的地位。这个项目的更广泛意义和重要性是双重的。 首先，研究如何识别和纠正学生在应用工程知识解决问题，特别是跨学科问题时遇到的困难，使工程师更能够满足社会的需求。 该项目还建立了工程教师和学习科学研究人员之间的伙伴关系，这可能会对工程教育产生广泛的影响，并提供更有效的实践。 该项目与NSF的战略目标重叠，即通过准备一支具有新能力和专业知识的工程队伍来改变前沿。 此外，NSF为社会创新的目标是通过为教育政策和实践提供信息来创造对社会有用的结果和研究。

This engineering education research initiation grant will create a partnership between engineering and STEM education faculty to investigate how to more efficiently teach engineering students how to become experts in their discipline. The project will use cognitive task analysis, drawing from knowledge of expert engineers, to teach students how better to solve common engineering problems. A solid experimental design is proposed to determine if cognitive task analysis can help transition students more quickly to expert status. The broader significance and importance of this project is twofold. First, researching how to identify and correct the difficulties students have in applying engineering knowledge to problems, particularly interdisciplinary problems, engineers are more able to address the needs of society. The project also build partnerships between engineering faculty and researchers in learning sciences, which can have broad impact on informing engineering education with more effective practices. This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of transforming the frontiers through preparation of an engineering workforce with new capabilities and expertise. Additionally NSF's goal of innovating for society is enabled by creating results and research that are useful for society by informing educational policy and practices.