Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Expanding the Inquiry into Undergraduate Engineering Admissions to Broaden Engineering Participation

在进入大学之前，在小学和中学（K-12）以及本科工程学院课程中，工程教育途径已经被彻底研究过。然而，对本科工程专业录取过程的研究却相当少。研究已经发现了高中成绩或标准化考试与大学工程项目成功之间的关系，但并没有典型地解决未来工程师大学申请中所代表的其他学生经历。考虑到获得大学录取看重的经历的已知不平等，以及当前录取过程中已知的偏见，这种差距令人不安。这项研究将推进工程本科招生的研究领域，以发现可以减少招生实践的策略，这些招生实践限制了对不同工程学生的接受。新的大学招生实践认识到不同的工程潜力，这将对成千上万的学生产生重要影响，并扩大攻读本科工程学位课程的学生数量，对解决当代技术挑战至关重要的工程劳动力的规模和组成产生关键的下游影响。本工程本科招生研究分为两个阶段：1)工程招生实践的分类；2)探索学生制作的本科工程应用组件的混合方法。第一部分描述了全国本科工程项目的录取协议生态系统。不同院校的大学录取程序各不相同，但工程教育研究界缺乏一个连贯的录取实践框架。通过分类法开发和随后的探索性数据分析，本研究将对未来工程师申请abet认证机构所需的数据进行分类，要求和入学协议如何因机构类型而异，以及这些要求和协议在美国的流行程度。第二部分调查了本科生工程申请中学生写的部分，以确定哪些经历和特征对工程申请者和招生审查员的接受程度很重要。使用混合方法设计，本研究将分析不同的数据源，包括来自未来工程师的申请、招生审查员的文件和访谈，以了解学生试图将自己表现为有能力、有前景的工程师的方式，招生审查员如何解释同一组学生信息，以及在构建和解释限制参与工程的申请时出现的偏见。这个集体的两阶段项目将提供一个系统的工程招生分类，以支持未来的工程招生研究，扩大研究界对工程招生协议的评估，并支持基于证据的策略，以消除本科工程录取中的偏见。本指南的目标是改进工程教育研究和招生实践，通过减少进入点的障碍，有可能扩大工程高等教育的参与。该项目由STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）计划资助，旨在提高STEM， STEM教育，教育和相关学科的近期博士的研究知识，技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，从而推进该领域的知识。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。

Engineering educational pathways have been thoroughly studied prior to college in elementary and secondary school years (K-12), as well as during undergraduate engineering college programs. However, research on the admission processes for undergraduate engineering programs is considerably scarcer. Studies have discovered relationships between high school grades or standardized testing and success in college engineering programs but have not typically addressed other student experiences represented in the college applications of prospective engineers. This gap is troubling given the known inequities of access to experiences that are valued in college admissions and known biases in current admissions processes. This research will advance the understudied area of engineering undergraduate admissions to discover strategies that can reduce admissions practices that limit the acceptance of a diverse population of engineering students. New university admissions practices that recognize diverse engineering potential will be of significance to and impact tens of thousands of students and broaden the number of students enrolling in undergraduate engineering degree programs, with critical downstream impacts on the size and composition of the engineering workforce that is critical to solving contemporary technological challenges.This research on engineering undergraduate admissions is organized in two phases: 1) a classification of engineering admissions practices and 2) a mixed methods approach to probing student-crafted components of undergraduate engineering applications. The first part describes the ecosystem of admissions protocols in undergraduate engineering programs nationally. University admissions processes vary across institutions, but the engineering education research community lacks a coherent framing of admissions practices. Using taxonomy development and subsequent exploratory data analysis, this research will classify what data is required in the applications of prospective engineers to ABET-accredited institutions, how requirements and admission protocols vary by institution type, and the prevalence of such requirements and protocols across the United States. The second part investigates student-written components of undergraduate engineering applications to determine which experiences and characteristics are valued as important for acceptance by engineering applicants and admissions reviewers. Using a mixed methods design, this research will analyze diverse data sources spanning applications from prospective engineers, documentation from admissions reviewers, and interviews to understand the way students attempt to represent themselves as capable, prospective engineering, how admissions reviewers interpret the same set of student information, and where bias arises in the construction and interpretation of applications that limits participation in engineering. The collective two-phase project will provide a systematic classification of engineering admissions to support future research into engineering admissions, expand the evaluation of engineering admissions protocols by the research community, and underpin evidence-based strategies to eliminate bias in the admission of undergraduate engineers. The goal of improving engineering education research and admissions practices inspired by this guidance have the potential to expand participation in engineering higher education by reducing barriers at the point of entry.This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.