Research Initiation: Engineering a Culture of Engagement

研究启动：营造参与文化

• 批准号: 1544147
• 负责人: Brock LaMeres
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Montana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1544147&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Initiation; Engineering; Culture; Engagement

This project aims to change the value system of college students to view engineering as a profession that serves the public good. It has been shown that underrepresented minorities, especially women and first generation college students gravitate toward professions that are viewed as serving their communities and helping others. While engineering certainly does serve public good, the common perception of the engineering profession is one that promotes self-oriented values such as wealth and personal success. This perception has a far reaching impact when trying to understand how students choose to become engineers, limiting the number of incoming college students that see engineering as a viable career. It also decreases the motivation of existing students to persist to graduation once in a degree program. And ultimately, it limits the number of underrepresented minorities that choose to stay in the engineering profession once in the workforce. By changing the culture surrounding engineering to one that promotes how engineering serves the public good, a larger and more diverse engineering workforce can be formed. In this project the research team focuses on a specific cultural phenomenon in which existing engineering students have less concern over time about how important it is that engineering serves the public good. This research explores the unique approach of "adding value" to engineering through targeted interventions to reverse the phenomenon of disengagement to create a culture that views engineering as a profession that helps others.The overall objective of this project is to initiate boundary-spanning research on how to transform a culture of disengagement into a culture of engagement that ultimately enhances the professional formation of engineers. This research will produce original data to understand why engineering students show less and less concern over time for how engineering contributes to public welfare. This project is the first to initiate a comprehensive research project specifically on Utility Value Theory with the long-term goal of changing the value system surrounding engineering to one that has prosocial, communal value. Creating a culture that considers engineering as a profession that serves the public good will attract a diverse population to engineering, fostering increased innovation for the next century. To accomplish the primary project objective, this project has two aims: 1) facilitate the professional development of an engineering faculty through collaborations with a social psychological scientist in order to 2) change the value system of engineering to include prosocial "engagement". The long term plan for this research (5 years) is to design and test the effectiveness of a large scale intervention guided by Utility Value Theory to contribute to a long lasting culture of engagement within engineering. The focus of this research initiation project (2 years) is to train an engineering faculty member in the process of social science by focusing on specific research questions testing the scope and process of the culture of disengagement within electrical engineering at Montana State University. The broader impact of this research includes advancing the understanding of how Utility Value Theory motivates the professional formation of engineers while simultaneously promoting the training of an engineering faculty. This research has the potential for great benefit to society by producing engineering graduates that are concerned with the ways in which engineering serves the public good. Students from this culture of engagement will serve as role models that promote engineering as a profession that has prosocial value. By changing the culture surrounding engineering, a more diverse group of students will be attracted to engineering and retained in the workforce, particularly women and 1st generation college students, which will ultimately broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering.

该项目旨在改变大学生的价值体系，以将工程学视为为公共利益服务的职业。已经表明，人为不足的少数群体，尤其是妇女和第一代大学生，他们倾向于被视为为社区服务和帮助他人的职业。虽然工程确实确实有助于公共利益，但对工程专业的普遍看法是促进自我导向价值观（例如财富和个人成功）的看法。当试图了解学生如何选择成为工程师时，这种看法会产生很大的影响，从而限制了将工程学视为可行职业的大学生的数量。它还减少了现有学生在学位课程中坚持毕业的动机。最终，它限制了选择在劳动力中留在工程专业的人数不足的少数民族的数量。通过将围绕工程的文化改变为促进工程如何为公共利益服务的文化，可以形成更大，更多样化的工程劳动力。在这个项目中，研究团队专注于一种特定的文化现象，在该现象中，现有工程专业的学生对工程学对公共利益的重要性的关注较少。这项研究通过针对性的干预措施探索了“增加价值”的独特方法，以扭转脱离接触的现象，从而创造一种文化，将工程视为一种有助于他人的工程。该项目的总体目标是启动有关如何将脱离文化转变为一种最终增强工程师专业形式的脱离文化的边界研究，以使工程师的专业形成。这项研究将产生原始数据，以了解为什么工程专业的学生对工程对公共福利的贡献的关注越来越少。该项目是第一个启动针对效用价值理论的全面研究项目的项目，其长期目标是将围绕工程的价值体系更改为具有亲社会，共同价值的工程。建立一种将工程学视为一种为公共利益服务的职业的文化将吸引各种各样的人口来工程，从而促进下一世纪的创新。为了实现主要项目目标，该项目有两个目的：1）通过与社会心理科学家的合作来促进工程学院的专业发展，以便更改工程学的价值体系，以包括亲社会的“参与”。这项研究的长期计划（5年）是设计和测试由公用事业价值理论指导的大规模干预措施的有效性，以促进工程学中长期持久的参与文化。该研究启动项目（2年）的重点是通过专注于特定的研究问题来测试蒙大拿州立大学电气工程中脱离接触文化的范围和过程，在社会科学过程中培训一名工程教师。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括促进对效用价值理论如何激发工程师的专业形成的理解，同时促进工程师的培训。这项研究通过生产工程毕业生与工程为公共利益服务的方式，从而为社会带来了巨大的利益。来自这种参与文化的学生将成为榜样，以促进工程学作为具有亲社会价值的职业。通过改变围绕工程的文化，将吸引一群更多样化的学生，并保留在劳动力中，尤其是妇女和第一代大学生，这最终将扩大代表性不足的团体在工程中的参与。