Understanding and Measuring Knowledge Construction in Engineers Returning to School for a Master's Degree

许多本科工程专业的学生选择攻读硕士学位，一些人在完成学士学位后立即攻读硕士学位，另一些人在工业界工作一段时间后攻读硕士学位。这些学生可能会选择暂时离开劳动力市场，或者他们可能会继续工作，同时继续他们的研究生学习。该项目的目标是更多地了解他们的工作如何影响他们的学习方式，以及他们如何将新知识与以前的知识和经验相结合。了解行业经验如何影响学习，将用于制定建议，以改善硕士学位课程，既为归国者，那些从行业回来的人，也为他们的同学。更好地了解这些归国学生的学习方式，将使硕士学位课程更好地满足他们的需求，使他们能够充分利用他们的经验，更深入、更有效地学习。它还将允许大学为那些直接从本科院校进入研究生院的学生改善学习环境，因为他们可以利用归国者的知识和经验来加强项目团队和课堂讨论，并将技术知识置于现实世界的应用中，以便学生更好地了解他们可以应用所学知识的方式。人们普遍认为，终身学习对工程师保持和提高技能以及在职业生涯中取得进步至关重要。虽然学习可以在许多不同的环境中进行，但继续教育的一个途径是获得研究生学位，例如工程硕士学位。硕士学位对学生知识水平和职业发展轨迹的影响部分取决于学生的背景、兴趣和能力。归国者，那些拥有工程本科学位，工作至少五年，然后攻读研究生学位的人，为他们的学位项目带来了各种各样的现实经验。这些经历可以增强他们自己的教育经历，为他们获得的新知识提供背景，并丰富他们的同学的学术氛围。本项目将重点关注那些拥有工程本科学位并正在攻读工程硕士学位的归国人员，并将通过调查调查归国人员和直接途径学生所拥有的技能以及他们学习新材料的方法，并将通过半结构化访谈和少数参与者的概念图活动来探索归国人员和直接途径学生的知识构建。本项目将创造关于硕士项目归国人员的新知识，特别是通过工作经验培养哪些技能，以及工作经验如何影响知识构建等领域。更好地了解归国人员如何构建知识，将使他们能够有意识地利用他们的工作经验和其他优势，以便在课堂上取得更大的成功。这将改善整个课堂学习环境，这也将有利于直接途径的学生。对于院校来说，更好地了解这两个群体的知识构建，将使它们能够总体上改善学习环境，并专门定制课程，以吸引海归并支持他们的成功。由于归国人员成功地增加了他们的知识，并为所有学生丰富了课堂环境，工程专业将从更多熟练和知识渊博的工程师中受益。

Many undergraduate engineering students choose to pursue a master's degree, some immediately after finishing their bachelor's degree and others after working in industry for a period of time. These students may choose to leave the workforce temporarily, or they might continue to work while they pursue their graduate study. The goal of this project is to learn more about how their work influences the way in which they learn and how they integrate new knowledge with their previous knowledge and experiences. Understanding how industry experience influences learning will be used to develop recommendations to improve master's degree programs both for returners, those who are coming back from industry, and for their classmates. Greater understanding of how these returning students learn will allow masters' degree programs to better serve their needs, tailoring programs so that they can take full advantage of their experience and learn more deeply and effectively. It will also allow universities to enhance the learning environment for those students who proceed directly from their undergraduate institution to graduate school, because they can leverage the knowledge and experiences of returners to enhance project teams and classroom discussions and to situate technical knowledge in real world applications so that students can better understand the ways they can apply what they are learning.Lifelong learning is widely acknowledged to be critically important for engineers to maintain and improve their skills, and to advance in their careers. While learning can take place in many different settings, one avenue for continuing education is obtaining a graduate degree, such as a master's degree in engineering. The impact of a master's degree on a student's knowledge level and career trajectory depends, in part, on a student's background, interests, and capabilities. Returners, those with engineering undergraduate degrees who work for at least five years and then pursue a graduate degree, bring a wide variety of real-world experiences to their degree programs. These experiences can enhance their own educational experiences, provide context for the new knowledge they obtain, and enrich the academic climate for their fellow students. This project will focus on those returners with an undergraduate degree in engineering who are pursuing a master's degree in engineering, and will investigate the skills that returners and direct-pathway students have and the approaches they take to learning new material through a survey, and will explore knowledge construction, in both returners and direct-pathway students, through semi-structured interviews and concept mapping activities with a smaller number of participants. This project will create new knowledge about returners in the master's program, particularly in the areas of what skills are developed through work experience, and how knowledge construction is influenced by work experience. Better understanding of how returners construct knowledge will allow them to consciously leverage their work experience and other strengths in order to be more successful in the classroom. This will enhance the overall classroom learning environment, which will benefit direct-pathway students as well. For institutions, better understanding of knowledge construction in both groups will allow them to improve their learning environment in general, and to specifically tailor their programs in ways that will appeal to returners and support their success. As the returners are successful in enhancing their knowledge, and in enriching the classroom environment for all students, the engineering profession will benefit from more skilled and knowledgeable engineers.