Research Initiation: Exploring the Associations Between Personality Attributes and Transformative Learning of Engineering Study Abroad Program Participants

研究启动：探索海外工程学习项目参与者的人格属性与变革性学习之间的关联

• 批准号: 2106229
• 负责人: Cedrick Kwuimy
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: University of Cincinnati Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2106229&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Initiation; Exploring; Associations; Between

The dynamic and global nature of the marketplace make proficiency in key professional skills a major differentiator in the competition for engineering jobs and an important factor in career success in engineering. Across U.S. higher education, there is a strong focus on developing students’ professional skills through life-altering study abroad programs. A life-altering study abroad program transforms participants’ reference frames and allows them to build professional competencies, such as analytical problem solving, planning and organizing, communication, teamwork and global understanding. An experientially designed short-term study abroad program (STSAP) has the potential to play a critical role in the values and behaviors that students take from global experiences, making it essential that STSAP programmers fully consider the potential holistic outcomes of their programs and how they are best achieved. Unfortunately, experience shows that a given study abroad experience elicits vastly different responses among students; for some students, the experience is life-altering while for others, it is decidedly not. This research will pave the way to a methodology for improving students global engineering mindset development through mapping personality traits to study abroad outcomes. The project will serve as a foundation for future work to guide the preparation and support of short-term study abroad participants for their life-altering experiences. Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) focuses on the processes involved in changing an individual’s frames of reference, while Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) provides direction to how we can develop the type of action oriented STSAP experiences that are likely to induce transformation. Building on these two theories, the research hypothesizes that student experience in STSAP could be related to personality traits associated with ELT and TLT. The overarching goal of this research is twofold: (a) to advance knowledge about the association of students’ personality traits and transformative learning from study abroad programs; and (b) to advance our understanding of the formation of engineering students by examining mechanisms that prepare and support them for rich study abroad experiences. The research questions are formulated as follows: (i) To what extent does transformative learning from experientially designed study abroad programs equally occur for different personality attributes and for different attitude toward other cultures? (ii) To what extent the association of transformative learning from experientially designed study abroad programs with different personality attributes and attitude toward other cultures differ by program structures (length, destination and nature -culturally-focused program and engineering-focused program)? (iii) To what extent does the association of transformative learning from experientially designed study abroad programs with different personality attributes differ among demographics? This exploratory project will use a mixed methods approach to answer the research questions. In Year 1, we will conduct a pilot study using a survey and focus group interviews for engineering study abroad program participants at UC. The findings from the pilot study will inform the construction of a national survey, particularly open-ended questions and focus group interview questions, for engineering study abroad program participants at five other universities, for the main study in Year 2. The findings will be structured to identify how to best structure STSAP along the Kolb’s experiential learning cycle in order to trigger transformative experience for all students.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.

市场的动态性和全球性使得对关键专业技能的熟练程度成为工程职位竞争的主要区别因素，也是工程职业成功的重要因素。在整个美国高等教育中，都非常注重通过培养学生的专业技能。改变生活的海外留学项目改变参与者的参考框架，让他们建立专业能力，如分析问题解决、规划和组织、沟通、团队合作和全球理解。短期出国留学项目（STSAP）有可能在学生从全球经验中获得的价值观和行为中发挥关键作用，因此 STSAP 程序员必须充分考虑其项目的潜在整体成果以及它们的效果不幸的是，经验表明，特定的出国留学经历会在学生中引起截然不同的反应；对于某些学生来说，这种经历会改变他们的生活，而对于另一些学生来说，这绝对不是，这项研究将为提高学生的方法论铺平道路。通过将人格特质映射到研究中来发展全球工程思维该项目将作为未来工作的基础，指导短期留学参与者的改变生活经历的准备和支持，该理论侧重于改变个人框架的过程。参考，而体验式学习理论（ELT）为我们如何开发可能引发转变的行动导向型 STSAP 体验提供了方向。基于这两种理论，学生在 STSAP 中的体验可能与人格特质相关的研究热潮。与 ELT 相关TLT。这项研究的总体目标有两个：（a）通过留学项目增进对学生人格特质与变革性学习之间关系的了解；（b）通过检查机制增进我们对工程学生形成的理解；研究问题如下：（i）对于不同的个性属性和对其他文化的不同态度，从体验式设计的出国留学项目中获得的变革性学习在多大程度上同样发生？ ) ) 变革性的关联程度如何从具有不同个性属性和对其他文化态度的体验式出国留学项目中学习因项目结构而异（长度、目的地和性质——以文化为重点的项目和以工程为重点的项目）（iii）变革性学习的关联程度如何？从经验设计的具有不同个性属性的出国留学项目中，不同人口统计数据有何不同？这个探索性项目将使用混合方法来回答研究问题。在第一年，我们将利用调查和焦点小组访谈进行海外工程学习的试点研究。加州大学的项目参与者。试点研究的结果将为第二年主要研究的全国调查的构建提供信息，特别是针对其他五所大学的工程留学项目参与者的开放式问题和焦点小组访谈问题。调查结果将结构化确定如何沿着 Kolb 的体验式学习周期最好地构建 STSAP，以便为所有学生引发变革性的体验。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。