Research Initiation: Exploring the Associations Between Personality Attributes and Transformative Learning of Engineering Study Abroad Program Participants

市场的动态性和全球性使关键专业技能的熟练程度成为工程工作竞争的主要差异化因素，也是工程职业成功的重要因素。在整个美国高等教育中，通过改变生活的海外留学计划，非常注重培养学生的专业技能。一个改变生活的出国留学计划改变了参与者的参考框架，使他们能够建立专业能力，如分析问题解决，规划和组织，沟通，团队合作和全球理解。经验设计的短期出国留学计划（STSAP）有可能在学生从全球经验中获得的价值观和行为中发挥关键作用，这使得STSAP程序员充分考虑其计划的潜在整体成果以及如何最好地实现这些成果至关重要。不幸的是，经验表明，特定的出国留学经历会在学生中引起截然不同的反应;对于一些学生来说，这种经历会改变生活，而对于另一些学生来说，情况却并非如此。这项研究将为通过将人格特质映射到出国留学成果来改善学生全球工程思维发展的方法铺平道路。该项目将作为未来工作的基础，指导短期出国留学参与者为改变生活的经历做好准备并提供支持。转型学习理论（TLT）的重点是改变个人的参考框架所涉及的过程，而经验学习理论（ELT）为我们如何开发可能引发转型的面向行动的STSAP经验提供了方向。基于这两个理论，本研究假设学生的短期学习经验可能与英语教学和外语教学相关的人格特质有关。这项研究的总体目标是双重的：（a）推进对学生的人格特质和海外留学项目的变革性学习的关联的认识;和（B）通过检查准备和支持他们丰富的海外留学经验的机制来推进我们对工程专业学生形成的理解。研究问题如下：（一）在何种程度上，从经验设计的留学项目同样发生不同的个性属性和对其他文化的不同态度的变革性学习？(ii)经验设计的出国留学项目的变革性学习与不同的个性属性和对其他文化的态度的关联在多大程度上因项目结构（长度、目的地和性质-以文化为中心的项目和以工程为中心的项目）而有所不同？(iii)从经验设计的海外留学项目中获得的变革性学习与不同个性属性的关联在人口统计学中有多大差异？这个探索性的项目将使用混合方法来回答研究问题。在第一年，我们将进行试点研究，使用调查和焦点小组访谈工程留学计划的参与者在UC。 试点研究的结果将为全国调查的建设提供信息，特别是开放式问题和焦点小组访谈问题，为其他五所大学的工程留学项目参与者提供信息，用于第二年的主要研究。研究结果将被构建，以确定如何最好地结构STSAP沿着科尔布的体验式学习周期，以触发所有学生的变革经验。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The dynamic and global nature of the marketplace make proficiency in key professional skills a major differentiator in the competition for engineering jobs and an important factor in career success in engineering. Across U.S. higher education, there is a strong focus on developing students’ professional skills through life-altering study abroad programs. A life-altering study abroad program transforms participants’ reference frames and allows them to build professional competencies, such as analytical problem solving, planning and organizing, communication, teamwork and global understanding. An experientially designed short-term study abroad program (STSAP) has the potential to play a critical role in the values and behaviors that students take from global experiences, making it essential that STSAP programmers fully consider the potential holistic outcomes of their programs and how they are best achieved. Unfortunately, experience shows that a given study abroad experience elicits vastly different responses among students; for some students, the experience is life-altering while for others, it is decidedly not. This research will pave the way to a methodology for improving students global engineering mindset development through mapping personality traits to study abroad outcomes. The project will serve as a foundation for future work to guide the preparation and support of short-term study abroad participants for their life-altering experiences. Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) focuses on the processes involved in changing an individual’s frames of reference, while Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) provides direction to how we can develop the type of action oriented STSAP experiences that are likely to induce transformation. Building on these two theories, the research hypothesizes that student experience in STSAP could be related to personality traits associated with ELT and TLT. The overarching goal of this research is twofold: (a) to advance knowledge about the association of students’ personality traits and transformative learning from study abroad programs; and (b) to advance our understanding of the formation of engineering students by examining mechanisms that prepare and support them for rich study abroad experiences. The research questions are formulated as follows: (i) To what extent does transformative learning from experientially designed study abroad programs equally occur for different personality attributes and for different attitude toward other cultures? (ii) To what extent the association of transformative learning from experientially designed study abroad programs with different personality attributes and attitude toward other cultures differ by program structures (length, destination and nature -culturally-focused program and engineering-focused program)? (iii) To what extent does the association of transformative learning from experientially designed study abroad programs with different personality attributes differ among demographics? This exploratory project will use a mixed methods approach to answer the research questions. In Year 1, we will conduct a pilot study using a survey and focus group interviews for engineering study abroad program participants at UC. The findings from the pilot study will inform the construction of a national survey, particularly open-ended questions and focus group interview questions, for engineering study abroad program participants at five other universities, for the main study in Year 2. The findings will be structured to identify how to best structure STSAP along the Kolb’s experiential learning cycle in order to trigger transformative experience for all students.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.