Research: Building on Student Academic Engineering Knowledge to Unlock their Potential to Become Professional Engineers

雇主担心工程专业毕业生是否有能力将他们在大学教育中获得的知识应用于现实问题，这种担忧可能从大学教育工程专业学生开始就存在了。许多研究表明，通过与工作相结合的学习经历和模仿行业实践的顶点设计课程等真实的机会来训练学生，可以更好地为他们的专业实践做好准备。不幸的是，工作环境因公司和职位的不同而不同，这就否定了模仿学生可能遇到的所有工作场所和行业惯例的任何概念。一些真正的学习实践无意中排除了那些生活环境阻止他们利用这种经验的学生。这个项目从一个不同的起点开始，因为关注学生所知道的东西，比如支持专业判断的理论或技能，可能会无意中掩盖对知识本身本质及其对学生学习的影响的探索。为了促进学生从教育环境到劳动力的过渡，我们需要更好地理解知识的组织原则，这些原则在将抽象理论与具体情况和应用联系起来时发挥作用。该项目将通过确定教师可以使用的教学方法来帮助学生更好地为从教育环境到劳动力的过渡做好准备，从而为工程师形成研究项目做出贡献。更广泛地说，这个项目意义重大，因为它将解释学生如何学习知识的构成以及知识是如何构建的——这是一种他们可以在任何知识型环境中应用的技能，包括专业工作。本研究旨在探讨工科本科学生将高等教育中获得的工程学科知识转化为专业知识以解决复杂设计问题的能力。我们称这个过程为知识动员。我们将应用一个前沿的多维概念框架来分析学习，称为合法化代码理论（LCT）来表征知识动员。我们将通过三种不断增加开放性和多学科设计问题水平的环境来研究从事不同程度开放式设计问题的机械工程专业学生的知识动员实践：1)初级设计导向课程，2)工程实习经历；3)顶点设计经验。这项研究将为学生成功或不成功地调动知识的方式提供基础知识。该项目具有创造性和原创性，因为它将LCT（北美一种相对未使用的方法）与解释性定性方法相结合，为参与者提供深入的见解，揭示影响知识动员成功或失败的组织原则，而不依赖于学生对特定工程概念的理解水平。这种知识结构视角将把理论构建为学生在特定学科（如流体力学或固体力学）中学习工程知识的原因。这项研究的结果将使教师能够在专业设置中更公开地向学生介绍工程知识的规范、价值观和以知识为导向的实践。结果包括一个专业发展计划，训练学生使用他们的工程知识解决专业设置中的问题。不像其他专业发展项目那样教授面试等特定技能，该项目将培养专业的工程元认知思维，使他们能够超越工程理论思考，重新组织现有模型，以便他们能够在面对新的和不确定的工程情况时进行调整。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。

Employer concerns about engineering graduates’ ability to apply the knowledge they gained in university education to real-world problems have been around perhaps for as long as universities have been educating engineering students. Many studies suggest that training students through real-world, authentic opportunities such as work-integrated learning experiences and capstone design courses mimicking industry practices better prepare them for professional practice. Unfortunately, workplace contexts vary from company to company and position to position, negating any notion of mimicking all workplaces and industry practices students could encounter. Some authentic learning practices unintentionally exclude students whose life circumstances prevent them from taking advantage of such experiences. This project begins from a different starting point because a focus on what students know, such as theory or skills that support professional judgment, can inadvertently obscure exploration of the nature of knowledge itself and its effects on student learning. To facilitate students’ transitions from education settings into the workforce, we need a better understanding of the organizing principles of knowledge which come into play when linking abstract theory to specific situations and applications. This project will contribute to the Research in the Formation of Engineers program by identifying teaching approaches instructors can use to better prepare students for the transition from education settings to the workforce. More broadly, this project is significant because it will explain how students learn what constitutes knowledge and how it is built – a skill they can apply in any knowledge-oriented context including professional work.The purpose of this research is to investigate the ability for undergraduate engineering students to translate engineering disciplinary knowledge acquired in tertiary education into professional settings to solve complex design problems. We call this process knowledge mobilization. We will apply a cutting-edge multi-dimensional conceptual framework for analyzing learning called Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to characterize knowledge mobilization. We will investigate knowledge mobilization practices of mechanical engineering students who engage in varying levels of open-ended design problems through three contexts having increasing levels of open-ended and multidisciplinary design problems: 1) a junior level design-oriented course, 2) an engineering internship experience; and 3) a capstone design experience. The research will contribute fundamental knowledge on the ways in which students successfully or unsuccessfully mobilize knowledge. This project is creative and original in that it will combine LCT, a relatively unused approach in North America, with interpretive qualitative methodologies to provide in-depth insights from participants to reveal the organizing principles that affect successful or unsuccessful mobilization of knowledge independent of the students’ level of understanding of the specific engineering concept. This knowledge structure perspective will build theory into the causes for student learning of engineering knowledge to remain locked within specific disciplines, such as fluid mechanics or solid mechanics. The outcomes of this research will enable instructors to orientate students more overtly towards the norms, values, and knowledge-oriented practices of engineering knowledge in professional settings. Outcomes include a professional development program to train students to use their engineering knowledge to solve problems in a professional setting. Unlike other professional development programs that teach specific skills such as interviewing, this program will develop a professional engineering metacognitive mindset to enable them to think beyond engineering theory and re-organize existing models so that they can adapt them in the face of novel and uncertain engineering situations.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.