Collaborative Research: Leveraging Lived Experiences of Nontraditional Engineering Students to Promote Engaged Student Learning in Technical Classrooms

合作研究：利用非传统工程专业学生的生活经验促进学生在技术课堂上的积极学习

• 批准号: 2315764
• 负责人: Ganapathy Natarajan
• 金额: $ 9.14万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Platteville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-15 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315764&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Leveraging; Lived; Experiences

This project aims to serve the national interest by leveraging the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students to increase engaged student learning for all engineering students. Nontraditional students (NTS) are defined as students who satisfy at least one of the seven criteria provided by the National Center for Education Statistics or are older than 24 years of age in an undergraduate program. NTES typically include adult learners, veterans, and women. The population of nontraditional engineering students is expected to increase and will become a significant part of the engineering student population. This project will advance the understanding of the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students as an asset and focus on the importance of leveraging their strengths for engineering education. This project will identify the characteristics of nontraditional engineering students’ lived experiences that can be leveraged, create cooperative learning activities that leverage their lived experiences to increase engaged student learning, and create open resources for other STEM educators. As an IUSE program Engaged Student Learning Track Level 1 project, this project serves the IUSE program’s intent of increasing student engagement and learning in STEM by broadening the participation of nontraditional engineering students in STEM education and STEM fields, and by providing an alternative pedagogy to increase traditional students’ awareness and understanding of the need for diversity and appreciation of diversity in engineering teams.The project will use a mixed-methods approach that includes semi-structured interviews, surveys, instructor observations, and minute-papers to answer two major research questions: (1) What are the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students that can be leveraged in undergraduate engineering classrooms to increase engaged learning for all students? and (2) How do we leverage these lived experiences in undergraduate engineering classrooms through cooperative learning to increase engaged learning of all students? A group of engineering educators will implement the cooperative learning activities developed through this project to evaluate the effectiveness and ease of implementation. Upon completion, this project will contribute to the undergraduate engineering education body of knowledge through: (1) exploring nontraditional engineering student education from an asset-based perspective; (2) identifying the themes and attributes of nontraditional engineering students’ lived experiences that can propagate future research in nontraditional engineering students; (3) expanding the assessment instrument in measuring engaged student learning at the in-class activity level; (4) creating an alternative instructional method by developing methodologies to create cooperative learning activities that leverage nontraditional engineering students’ lived experiences and developing a set of cooperative in-class activities based on this methodology that is used to validate the methodology. The major deliverables from this project will be (1) identifying characteristics and attributes of the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students (2) an open handbook of cooperative learning activities developed through this project, and methodologies to develop additional cooperative learning activities that leverage the lived experiences of nontraditional engineering students to increase engaged student learning. The deliverables will be disseminated through conferences, demonstrative workshops, virtual workshops, and publication of the handbook as an open resource. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.

该项目旨在通过利用非传统工程专业学生的现场经验来提高所有工程专业的学生学习，以为国家利益提供服务。非传统学生（NTS）定义为满足国家教育统计中心提供的七个标准中的至少一个或在本科课程中24岁以上的学生。 NTE通常包括成人学习者，退伍军人和妇女。预计非传统工程专业学生的人口将增加，并将成为工程学生群体的重要组成部分。该项目将促进对非传统工程专业学生的现场经验的理解，并关注利用其优势在工程教育方面的重要性。该项目将确定可以利用的非传统工程学生实时体验的特征，创建合作学习活动，以利用其生活经验来增加参与的学生学习，并为其他STEM教育者创造开放的资源。作为一项IUSE课程，该项目是通过非传统的工程学生参与STEM教育和STEM领域的参与来扩大学生参与和学习的意图，并通过提供替代性的教学法来扩大STEM的参与度，并提供对传统学生的意识以及对各种各样的培训的需求以及对各种各样的访问的认识来提高访问的方法。调查，讲师观察和分钟纸，以回答两个主要的研究问题：（1）非传统工程学生的现场经历是什么，可以在本科工程课上利用，以增加所有学生的参与学习？ （2）我们如何通过合作学习来增加本科工程教室的这些现场经验来增加所有学生的敬业学习？一组工程教育将实施通过该项目开发的合作学习活动，以评估实施的有效性和易度性。完成后，该项目将有助于本科工程教育的知识体系：（1）从基于资产的角度探索非传统工程学生教育； （2）识别非传统工程学生的现场经验的主题和属性，这些经验可以传播非传统工程专业学生的未来研究； （3）扩展评估工具，以测量在课堂活动水平的订婚学生学习； （4）通过开发创建合作学习活动的方法来创建一种替代教学方法，以利用非传统工程学生的现场经验，并根据该方法来开发一套合作的课堂活动，该方法用于验证该方法。该项目的主要可交付成果将是（1）识别非传统工程专业学生现场经验的特征和属性（2）通过该项目开发的合作学习活动的开放手册，以及开发其他合作学习活动的方法，以利用非传统工程学学生的实时体验，以增加参与学生的学习。可交付成果将通过会议，示范性研讨会，虚拟讲习班以及将手册作为开放资源的出版物进行传播。 NSF IUSE：EDU计划支持研发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过订婚的学生学习轨道，该计划支持了承诺实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估审查标准，被认为是值得通过评估的。