Promoting Problem-Solving Skills and Self-Regulated Learning in First-Year Engineering Students

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving curricula and curricular interventions in engineering education. Research has demonstrated that students’ early experiences with STEM coursework play a pivotal role in their decision to persist in STEM. Many students express initial interest in engineering but experience challenges with problem-solving skills that are key to the discipline. Students that begin in engineering at the College Algebra, Trigonometry, or Pre-calculus level (non-calculus ready students), in particular, may benefit from supports that help them employ effective strategies during problem-solving. Supporting these students’ success and persistence in STEM is of particular significance given the continued national need for more STEM professionals. Therefore, identifying and refining interventions that promote students’ interest, achievement, and persistence in engineering are of increasing importance and national concern. This project will test interventions designed to promote problem-solving knowledge and skills among non-calculus ready students, a population in which students from underrepresented, first-generation, and economically-disadvantaged groups are overrepresented. The project aims to advance understanding of supports that increase students’ success and retention in engineering and will generate knowledge about the use of similar interventions in other STEM courses and programs. The primary goals of this project are to: 1) build, test, and refine a two-part, course-based self-regulated learning intervention that scaffolds non-calculus ready students’ use of metacognitive skills during problem-solving and 2) disseminate a set of integrated intervention activities and instructional materials that support engineering students’ problem-solving. To address the goals of the project, the researchers will: 1) implement and refine contextualized methods of assessing students’ metacognitive skills during problem-solving; 2) model patterns and profiles of students’ problem-solving skills and their relations to problem-solving performance in engineering and mathematics; 3) develop, test, and refine a model of self-regulated learning during story problem-solving; and 4) implement iterative classroom-based research to refine instructional materials supporting students’ conceptual knowledge and strategic problem-solving. The researchers will implement matching techniques to stratify and closely match students in intervention and control groups and will conduct both person-centered and latent growth modeling techniques to characterize and examine change in students’ problem-solving and metacognitive skills. The project will incorporate substantive educational activities and outreach that intend to increase the retention of students in engineering who did not place into calculus in their first semester. Outcomes of this project will guide the design of intervention materials to prompt and promote students’ conceptual knowledge and strategic learning, providing replicable tools to enhance STEM education and retention more broadly. The NSF IUSE 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.