Promoting Problem-Solving Skills and Self-Regulated Learning in First-Year Engineering Students

该项目旨在通过改进工程教育的课程和课程干预来服务于国家利益。研究表明，学生早期使用STEM课程的经验在他们决定坚持STEM的过程中起着关键作用。许多学生最初表现出对工程学的兴趣，但在解决问题的技能上遇到了挑战，而解决问题的技能是这门学科的关键。尤其是从大学代数、三角学或微积分预科水平开始学习工程学的学生(非微积分专业的学生)，可能会受益于帮助他们在解决问题时采用有效策略的支持。鉴于国家对更多STEM专业人员的持续需求，支持这些学生在STEM取得成功和坚持不懈具有特别重要的意义。因此，确定和完善能够提高学生对工程学的兴趣、成就和毅力的干预措施越来越重要，也越来越受到全国的关注。这个项目将测试旨在促进非微积分学生解决问题的知识和技能的干预措施，非微积分学生是一个来自代表不足的第一代和经济困难群体的学生比例过高的群体。该项目旨在增进对支持的理解，以提高学生在工程方面的成功和留存，并将产生关于在其他STEM课程和计划中使用类似干预的知识。该项目的主要目标是：1)建立、测试和完善基于课程的两部分自主学习干预，为非微积分准备的学生在问题解决过程中使用元认知技能奠定基础；2)传播一套支持工科学生解决问题的综合干预活动和教学材料。为了达到这个项目的目标，研究人员将：1)实施和改进评估学生在解决问题过程中的元认知技能的情景方法；2)建立学生问题解决技能的模式和轮廓及其与工程和数学中问题解决成绩的关系；3)开发、测试和改进故事问题解决过程中的自我调节学习模式；以及4)实施基于课堂的迭代研究，以改进支持学生概念知识和策略性问题解决的教学材料。研究人员将采用匹配技术对干预组和控制组的学生进行分层和紧密匹配，并将采用以人为中心和潜在成长建模技术来表征和检查学生解决问题和元认知技能的变化。该项目将包括实质性的教育活动和外联活动，旨在增加那些在第一学期没有学习微积分的工程学学生的留存率。该项目的成果将指导干预材料的设计，以促进和促进学生的概念性知识和战略学习，为更广泛地加强STEM教育和保留提供可复制的工具。NSF IUSE计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生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 curricula and curricular interventions in engineering education. Research has demonstrated that students’ early experiences with STEM coursework play a pivotal role in their decision to persist in STEM. Many students express initial interest in engineering but experience challenges with problem-solving skills that are key to the discipline. Students that begin in engineering at the College Algebra, Trigonometry, or Pre-calculus level (non-calculus ready students), in particular, may benefit from supports that help them employ effective strategies during problem-solving. Supporting these students’ success and persistence in STEM is of particular significance given the continued national need for more STEM professionals. Therefore, identifying and refining interventions that promote students’ interest, achievement, and persistence in engineering are of increasing importance and national concern. This project will test interventions designed to promote problem-solving knowledge and skills among non-calculus ready students, a population in which students from underrepresented, first-generation, and economically-disadvantaged groups are overrepresented. The project aims to advance understanding of supports that increase students’ success and retention in engineering and will generate knowledge about the use of similar interventions in other STEM courses and programs. The primary goals of this project are to: 1) build, test, and refine a two-part, course-based self-regulated learning intervention that scaffolds non-calculus ready students’ use of metacognitive skills during problem-solving and 2) disseminate a set of integrated intervention activities and instructional materials that support engineering students’ problem-solving. To address the goals of the project, the researchers will: 1) implement and refine contextualized methods of assessing students’ metacognitive skills during problem-solving; 2) model patterns and profiles of students’ problem-solving skills and their relations to problem-solving performance in engineering and mathematics; 3) develop, test, and refine a model of self-regulated learning during story problem-solving; and 4) implement iterative classroom-based research to refine instructional materials supporting students’ conceptual knowledge and strategic problem-solving. The researchers will implement matching techniques to stratify and closely match students in intervention and control groups and will conduct both person-centered and latent growth modeling techniques to characterize and examine change in students’ problem-solving and metacognitive skills. The project will incorporate substantive educational activities and outreach that intend to increase the retention of students in engineering who did not place into calculus in their first semester. Outcomes of this project will guide the design of intervention materials to prompt and promote students’ conceptual knowledge and strategic learning, providing replicable tools to enhance STEM education and retention more broadly. The NSF IUSE 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.