Enhancing Engineering Students’ Ability to Think Deeply about their Learning Through Formal and Continuous Reflection

该项目旨在通过提高工科学生深刻反思学习的能力来服务于国家利益。反思能力是一项必要的职场技能。这有助于人们在工作中自学。它是美国创新和经济竞争力所必需的。这个项目很有意义，因为它侧重于调查整个工程学位课程中反思活动的使用情况。工程学教师将接受培训，以便在课堂上创造和使用反思活动。创建建设反思能力的实践性教师资源。一个目标结果是，学生在从事工程工作时，具有良好的反思能力来指导他们的学习。寻求的第二个结果是工程教学实践的改变。该项目的目标是调查在一致的框架支持下，在整个学位课程中有目的地嵌入学生反思，如何影响学生的元认知策略，作为为工作场所学习做准备的指标。这项研究具有重要意义，因为它的重点是通过对学生反思的理论分析，而不是仅仅依靠对学生感知的量化测量，来关注正式的和持续的反思对学生随着时间的推移发展元认知策略的影响。总体的研究问题是：理论驱动的跨工科课程反思整合对学生元认知调节能力有何影响？反思活动的整合如何影响教学团队成员对工程教育反思的信念和教与学的信念？研究问题将通过四个项目目标来解决：(1)共同设计适合不同课程类型、学术水平和期望学习结果的反思整合策略；(2)阐明学生在整个工程课程中使用的元认知策略的纵向发展；(3)探索反思整合的教学团队经验；以及(4)共同开发工程课程和项目层面反思整合的实践资源。这些目标将通过定量和定性的数据收集方法来实现，包括学生反思和调查以及教学小组访谈。传播项目成果的目的是为STEM教育的体制改进奠定基础。项目传播包括研究场所(例如，会议、档案期刊)和研究与实践场所(例如，工程学科会议)。NSF IUSE：EDU计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving engineering students' ability to reflect deeply on their learning. An ability to reflect is a necessary workforce skill. It helps one to learn on their own at work. It is needed for U.S. innovation and economic competitiveness. This project is significant because it focuses on investigating the use of reflection activities across entire engineering degree programs. Engineering teachers will be trained to create and use reflection activities in their classrooms. Practical teacher resources to build reflective capacity will be created. One target outcome is students with a well-developed ability to use reflection to guide their learning as they do engineering work. A second outcome sought is a change in engineering teaching practices.The goal of the project is to investigate how purposefully embedded student reflection, supported by a consistent framework, across a degree program, impacts students’ metacognitive strategies as an indicator of preparation for workplace learning. This project is significant because of its focus on the impact of formal and continuous reflection on students’ development of metacognitive strategies over time through theory-based analysis of students’ reflections rather than relying solely on quantitative measures of students’ perceptions. The overall research questions are: What is the impact of the theory-driven integration of reflection across engineering curricula on students’ metacognitive regulatory abilities? How does the integration of reflection activities impact instructional team members’ beliefs about reflection in engineering education and teaching and learning beliefs? The research questions will be addressed through four project aims: (1) co-design reflection integration strategies appropriate for different course types, academic levels, and desired learning outcomes, (2) illuminate the longitudinal development of metacognitive strategies that students use across an engineering curriculum, (3) explore instructional team experiences with reflection integration, and (4) co-develop practical resources for engineering course- and program-level integration of reflection. These aims will be accomplished through quantitative and qualitative data collection methods including student reflections and surveys as well as instructional team interviews. Dissemination of the project results is intended to lay groundwork for institutional improvement in STEM education. Project dissemination includes research venues (e.g., conferences, archival journals) and research-to-practice venues (e.g., engineering discipline conferences). The NSF IUSE:EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.