Collaborative Research: Crossing the Threshold of Problem Solving: Electrical Engineering vs. Chemistry

协作研究：跨越解决问题的门槛：电气工程与化学

• 批准号: 1348722
• 负责人: Hannah Sevian
• 金额: $ 35.59万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Boston
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1348722&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Crossing; Threshold; Problem

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS: University of Massachusetts Boston (Lead)University of Nebraska-LincolnCORE AREA(s):STEM Learning/STEM Learning Environments - Undergraduate EducationPROJECT DESCRIPTION The project is studying the abstraction capacity in problem solving among undergraduate students in two STEM disciplines. The three-year project involves faculty and students in electrical engineering at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and in chemistry at University of Massachusetts Boston. The study is examining two courses in each discipline (that typically occur in the sophomore and junior years) for evidence of an abstraction threshold - the gap in reasoning ability that can be crossed by students. The project is seeking to characterize reasoning applied to problem solving using a cognitive processing model, Representation Mapping.The study tests two hypotheses: 1) Many students do not have fully mature processes for abstraction, i.e., cognitive supply, and it is possible to measure what their processes are and the degree to which they are capable of reasoning using abstraction. 2) Somewhere in each undergraduate STEM curriculum, cognitive demand increases to the point where a typical students current capacity for abstraction is not matched to the complexity of problems posed, and this impacts student performance. The research questions being studied are: RQ1: How can students problem solving processes and degree of abstraction in two different STEM disciplines - electrical engineering and chemistry - be characterized using Representation Mapping? RQ2: What evidence is there that abstraction thresholds exist in undergraduate electrical engineering and chemistry curricula? RQ3: What are discipline-specific nuances of abstraction in electrical engineering and chemistry education?This theory-driven project involves a rigorous interdisciplinary study that has the potential to significantly advance the understanding of how students reason when solving problems associated with deep concepts in STEM disciplines. The effort is in direct alignment the report from the National Academies on Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER), which includes "Interdisciplinary studies of cross-cutting concepts and cognitive processes" as one of its four overall recommendations for promising directions in studying undergraduate STEM education. The project is making significant contributions to the knowledge base on how to increase students' problem solving approaches and is helping to uncover how domain-general and discipline-dependent cognitive processing interact in two STEM disciplines.BROADER SIGNIFICANCE As manifest by its strong alignment with the DBER report, the project is an area of national interest. The project is uncovering commonalities of abstraction in two STEM disciplines and clarifying differences in abstraction between the disciplines. This effort is providing fundamental insights to support how instructors can capitalize on commonalities and deliberately provide avenues for students to practice discipline-dependent reasoning strategies in problem solving. Situating the data collection in two very different universities - a traditional research university in the Midwest and a majority minority non-traditional university in the Northeast - lends greater potential relevance to the findings, which is being widely disseminated at high profile conferences in both science and engineering education. An interdisciplinary study is producing results that are more readily transferred to other STEM disciplines, thus enhancing their potential for broad adoption.

参与机构：马萨诸塞大学波士顿大学（领导）内布拉斯加州 - 林肯科尔大学（S）：STEM学习/STEM学习环境 - 本科教育项目描述该项目正在研究两个STEM学科中的不知情学生的抽象能力。这项为期三年的项目涉及内布拉斯加州林肯大学电气工程的教职员工以及马萨诸塞大学波士顿大学的化学。该研究正在检查每个学科的两门课程（通常在大二和大三时），以证明抽象阈值 - 学生可以跨越的推理能力的差距。该项目正在寻求表征用于使用认知处理模型，表示映射的解决问题的推理。研究测试了两个假设：1）许多学生没有完全成熟的抽象过程，即认知供应，即可能是衡量其过程以及他们能够使用吸引力的方法的方法。 2）在每个本科STEM课程中的某个地方，认知需求增加到典型的学生当前抽象能力与提出问题的复杂性不匹配，这会影响学生的表现。所研究的研究问题是：RQ1：学生如何使用代表映射来解决两个不同茎学科的问题解决过程和抽象程度 - 电气工程和化学？ RQ2：有什么证据表明，本科电气工程和化学课程中存在抽象阈值？ RQ3：电气工程和化学教育中抽象的特定学科特定细微差别是什么？这个理论驱动的项目涉及一项严格的跨学科研究，该研究有可能显着促进对学生在解决与STEM学科中深层概念相关的问题时如何推理问题的理解。这项努力是直接对齐的基于学科的教育研究（DBER）的报告，其中包括“跨学科研究，跨学科概念和认知过程”，这是其在研究本科STEM教育方面的四个总体建议之一。该项目正在为如何增加学生解决问题解决方法的知识为基础做出重大贡献，并有助于揭示领域将军和纪律依赖性的认知处理如何在两个STEM学科中相互作用。Broader与DBER报告的强烈契合表现出的意义，该项目是国家利益的领域。该项目正在发现两个茎学科中抽象的共同点，并阐明了学科之间的抽象差异。这项努力提供了基本的见解，以支持教师如何利用共同点并故意为学生提供依赖纪律依赖于学科的推理策略的途径。将数据收集置于两所截然不同的大学（中西部的一所传统研究大学）和东北部的大多数少数族裔非传统大学 - 在科学和工程教育的高知名会议上广泛传播了与调查结果的潜在相关性。一项跨学科研究正在产生更容易转移到其他STEM学科的结果，从而增强了其广泛采用的潜力。