Research Initiation: Improving Engineering-Related Social Cognitions through Teaching Practices

在工程领域取得成功不仅需要技术知识和技能，还需要在工程研究和工程职业生涯中面临的挑战中取得成功的能力。此外，这些信念已被发现是妇女和在工程领域代表性不足的种族/族裔群体取得成功的重要因素。学院和大学可以通过创建工程项目来帮助解决这一需求，通过改进教学实践来增强这些信念。这不仅可以提高所有学生的工程教育水平，而且还可以满足全国对工程专业更大代表性的需求。在这个项目中，研究人员将与工程学院合作开发针对这些信念和属性的教学活动，然后测量这些教学实践如何与两种特定类型信念的变化相关：自我效能感和结果预期。这个项目的最终好处将是找到某些教学实践和改善自我信念之间的联系。这样的发现将导致改进但容易整合的教学实践，这可能对工程教育以及工程中代表性不足的群体的保留和成功产生真正的影响。本项目将通过研究这些实践对课堂学生社会认知的影响，并与对照组进行比较，为基于社会认知的教学实践与自我效能（对自己在给定领域成功完成任务的能力的信念）和结果预期（对执行特定行为的后果的信念）的提高之间的关系提供证据支持。此外，我们将调查基于性别的教学实践的不同影响，并评估这种改善是否在以后的学期中持续存在。此外，我们测试了一个模型，该模型检验了与工程相关的自我效能感、积极结果预期和消极结果预期对学生坚持工程意愿的影响。社会认知职业理论因其在扩大代表性不足群体参与STEM职业方面的潜力而被认可，作为本研究的理论框架。本研究旨在提供数据来回答以下问题：工科学生的工程相关社会认知能否通过教学实践得到改善？社会认知职业理论是否解释了自我效能感、积极结果预期、消极结果预期和坚持意愿之间的关系？将建立一个工程学院学习社区，其中6名教师将学习社会认知，并在他们的课程中实施和记录基于社会认知的教学策略，以提高工科学生的社会认知。教学实践的影响将通过学生调查来记录，在课程开始之前，期间和之后，以及与同一教师所教的对照组学生的结果进行比较。这个项目的数据将作为初步的数据来分析和发展基于社会认知的教学实践，这将有助于从代表性不足的群体中留住和成功的工程师。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Success in engineering requires not only technical knowledge and skills but also belief in the ability to succeed in the challenges one may face in engineering studies and engineering careers. Furthermore, these beliefs have been found to be important factors in the success of women and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in engineering. Colleges and universities can help address this need by creating engineering programs enhance these beliefs through modified teaching practices. This not only improves the engineering education of all students but also would address a national need for greater representation in engineering. In this project, researchers will work with engineering faculty to develop instructional activities that target these beliefs and attributes, and then measure how these teaching practices are related to changes in two specific types of beliefs: self-efficacy and outcomes expectations. The ultimate benefit of the project would be to find a link between certain teaching practices and improved beliefs about one's self. Such a finding would lead to improved yet easily integrated teaching practices that may have a real impact on engineering education as well as the retention and success of underrepresented groups in engineering.This project will give evidential support on the relationship between social cognitive based teaching practices and improvement in self-efficacy (the belief in one's abilities to successfully accomplish tasks in a given domain) and outcome expectations (the beliefs about the consequences of performing particular behaviors) by examining the impact of these practices on the social cognitions among students in classes targeted for these practices as compared to a control group. Furthermore, we will investigate the differential impact of teaching practices based on gender and assess if the improvements persist in later semesters. In addition, we test a model that examines the associations of engineering-related self-efficacy, positive outcome expectations, and negative outcome expectations on students' intentions to persist in engineering. Social Cognitive Career Theory recognized for its potential in expanding the involvement of underrepresented groups in STEM careers, serves as the theoretical framework for the proposed study. The research seeks to provide data to answer the following questions: Can engineering-related social cognitions among engineering students be improved through teaching practices? Does Social Cognitive Career Theory explain the relations among self-efficacy, positive outcome expectations, negative outcome expectations, and persistence intentions? An engineering faculty learning community will be established where 6 faculty members will learn about social cognitions and implement and document social cognitive-based teaching instructional strategies in their courses to improve the social cognitions of their engineering students. The impact of the teaching practices will be documented through student surveys before, during, and after the subject courses are taken, as well as outcomes compared to control group students taught by the same faculty. The data from this project will serve as preliminary data to analyze and develop social cognitive based teaching practices that will aid in the retention and success of engineers from underrepresented groups.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.