Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Expanding the Inquiry into Undergraduate Engineering Admissions to Broaden Engineering Participation

博士后奖学金：STEMEdIPRF：扩大本科工程招生调查以扩大工程参与

• 批准号: 2327263
• 负责人: Trevor Franklin
• 金额: $ 36.38万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 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: 2023-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2327263&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Postdoctoral; Fellowship; STEMEdIPRF; Expanding; Inquiry

Engineering educational pathways have been thoroughly studied prior to college in elementary and secondary school years (K-12), as well as during undergraduate engineering college programs. However, research on the admission processes for undergraduate engineering programs is considerably scarcer. Studies have discovered relationships between high school grades or standardized testing and success in college engineering programs but have not typically addressed other student experiences represented in the college applications of prospective engineers. This gap is troubling given the known inequities of access to experiences that are valued in college admissions and known biases in current admissions processes. This research will advance the understudied area of engineering undergraduate admissions to discover strategies that can reduce admissions practices that limit the acceptance of a diverse population of engineering students. New university admissions practices that recognize diverse engineering potential will be of significance to and impact tens of thousands of students and broaden the number of students enrolling in undergraduate engineering degree programs, with critical downstream impacts on the size and composition of the engineering workforce that is critical to solving contemporary technological challenges.This research on engineering undergraduate admissions is organized in two phases: 1) a classification of engineering admissions practices and 2) a mixed methods approach to probing student-crafted components of undergraduate engineering applications. The first part describes the ecosystem of admissions protocols in undergraduate engineering programs nationally. University admissions processes vary across institutions, but the engineering education research community lacks a coherent framing of admissions practices. Using taxonomy development and subsequent exploratory data analysis, this research will classify what data is required in the applications of prospective engineers to ABET-accredited institutions, how requirements and admission protocols vary by institution type, and the prevalence of such requirements and protocols across the United States. The second part investigates student-written components of undergraduate engineering applications to determine which experiences and characteristics are valued as important for acceptance by engineering applicants and admissions reviewers. Using a mixed methods design, this research will analyze diverse data sources spanning applications from prospective engineers, documentation from admissions reviewers, and interviews to understand the way students attempt to represent themselves as capable, prospective engineering, how admissions reviewers interpret the same set of student information, and where bias arises in the construction and interpretation of applications that limits participation in engineering. The collective two-phase project will provide a systematic classification of engineering admissions to support future research into engineering admissions, expand the evaluation of engineering admissions protocols by the research community, and underpin evidence-based strategies to eliminate bias in the admission of undergraduate engineers. The goal of improving engineering education research and admissions practices inspired by this guidance have the potential to expand participation in engineering higher education by reducing barriers at the point of entry.This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.

在上大学之前，小学和中学（K-12）以及本科工程学院课程期间已经对工程教育途径进行了彻底的研究。然而，对本科工程课程录取过程的研究却相当匮乏。研究发现了高中成绩或标准化测试与大学工程课程成功之间的关系，但通常没有解决未来工程师大学申请中所代表的其他学生经历。考虑到大学招生中所重视的经历的获取不平等以及当前招生过程中已知的偏见，这种差距令人不安。这项研究将推进工程本科招生的研究领域，以发现可以减少限制录取不同工程专业学生群体的招生做法的策略。承认多样化工程潜力的新大学招生实践将对数以万计的学生产生重要影响，并扩大本科工程学位课程的学生数量，对工程劳动力的规模和构成产生重大的下游影响这项关于工程本科招生的研究分为两个阶段：1）工程招生实践的分类和2）探索学生设计的本科工程申请组成部分的混合方法。第一部分描述了全国本科工程项目招生协议的生态系统。大学招生流程因机构而异，但工程教育研究界缺乏连贯的招生实践框架。使用分类法开发和随后的探索性数据分析，本研究将对未来工程师申请 ABET 认证机构所需的数据进行分类，要求和录取协议如何因机构类型而异，以及此类要求和协议在美国的普遍程度国家。第二部分调查了学生撰写的本科工程申请的组成部分，以确定哪些经验和特征对于工程申请人和招生评审员的录取至关重要。这项研究将采用混合方法设计，分析不同的数据源，包括未来工程师的申请、招生评审员的文件以及面试，以了解学生如何试图将自己描绘成有能力的、未来的工程师，以及招生评审员如何解释同一组学生信息，以及在限制参与工程的应用程序的构建和解释中出现的偏差。这个两阶段的集体项目将提供工程招生的系统分类，以支持未来的工程招生研究，扩大研究界对工程招生协议的评估，并支持基于证据的策略，以消除本科工程师招生中的偏见。受本指南启发，改善工程教育研究和招生实践的目标有可能通过减少入学门槛来扩大工程高等教育的参与。该项目由 STEM 教育博士后研究奖学金 (STEM Ed PRF) 计划资助旨在增强近期博士生在 STEM、STEM 教育、教育和相关学科领域的研究知识、技能和实践，以促进他们为从事基础和应用研究做好准备，从而推进该领域的知识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命并且已经通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。