Practicing Self-Regulation of Cognition and Motivation during Problem Solving in Engineering and Mathematics

This project aims to serve the national interest by enhancing undergraduate students' problem-solving skills in engineering and mathematics. To do so, the project will develop a greater understanding about how students self-regulate their cognition and motivation during the process of solving difficult engineering and math problems. It will also support instructors to use teaching practices that promote self-regulation.

Self-regulation comprises the knowledge and skills that enable students to control their thoughts and emotions while engaged in academic activities. This project focuses on improving student practice of self-regulation during problem-solving activities in two required second year engineering and mathematics courses. In engineering and mathematics, problems often have implicit constraints and requirements that are not easily identified by novice students.

As a result, research is needed to understand how engineering and mathematics instructors can help students develop and activate their ability to self-regulate during problem-solving activities. To be effective problem-solvers, students must actively coordinate their understanding of the task at hand, their thoughts, and their motivation throughout the problem-solving activities.

This three-year project will advance engineering and mathematics education theory and practice regarding engineering students’ self-regulation of thinking and motivation during engineering and math problem-solving activities.

The distinct self-regulatory skills to be investigated include (1) students’ personal knowledge about the problem being solved (metacognitive knowledge about task), (2) students’ active and reflective coordination of cognitive processes in light of their metacognitive knowledge (self-regulation of cognition), and (3) students’ self-control of the motivation needed to maintain engagement during problem solving activities (self-regulation of motivation). The project will make three significant contributions.

First, findings will broaden the limited knowledge about how students’ metacognitive knowledge about a task informs their cognitive and motivation self-regulatory processes in engineering and mathematics problem-solving activities. Second, by working directly with engineering and mathematics faculty to understand the implications of findings and develop new practices and tools that promote self-regulated learning, this project may advance problem-solving instruction.

Third, because this research will develop, test, and implement new research protocols to assess students’ metacognitive knowledge about task and the strategies they use, new knowledge will contribute positively to future studies of students’ self-regulated learning in engineering and mathematics, as well as in other fields. Four research questions guide the study and a sequential mixed-methods research design involving quantitative and qualitative research methods will be used to develop complementary coarse and fine-grained understandings of students’ self-regulated cognition and self-regulated motivation during engineering and mathematics problem-solving activities.

Coarse-grained understandings will be developed through analysis of quantitative data collected using validated self-report surveys (for example, Brief Regulation of Motivation Scale, BRoMS, and the Physics Metacognitive Inventory, PMI). Fine-grained understandings will be developed through analysis of qualitative data gathered via one-on-one interviews, think-aloud protocols, classroom observations, and course artifacts gathered in class.

The NSF IUSE: EHR 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.