以项目为基础的教学方法对提高大学生工程实践自我效能的影响研究

Influences of Program-based Teaching Methods on Improving the Self-efficacy of University Students′Engineering Practice

当今的工程教育越来越注重培养工科学生的工程实践能力,以项目为基础的教学方法得到越来越多的认同。这种方法主要是运用现实或模拟的工程项目作为案例来训练学生对工程实践的认识以及动手能力。本文旨在借助著名心理学家班杜拉的自我效能理论,对这一教学方法的实际效果进行量化研究,讨论其对工程教育教学的影响和意义。班杜拉认为,个体亲自参与的工作经验能够提高个体对成功完成特定任务的信心,他将这种信心定义为自我效能。高自我效能可以促进个体更好地完成特定的工作,甚至能够影响个体对专业和职业的决策。因此,工程教育领域的一些研究者认为,让学生在学习期间参与动手操作的项目,能够提升学生工程实践的自我效能,并增强他们选择工程职业的信心,从而实现工程教育的目标。本文的研究者根据这一理论,参考麻省理工学院的相关实验和研究,设计了测量工科大学生工程实践自我效能的量表,利用追踪研究的方法,前后两次测量了北京工业大学选修"机械设计"课程的学生在选课前和选课后的工程实践自我效能。在105份有效样本的基础上,本研究发现通过课堂中的实践项目环节,学生的工程实践自我效能有了明显提升,说明了以项目为基础的教学方法在提高工科学生的工程实践能力上有积极的影响,并且对女生的影响大于男生。本文还简要分析了以项目为基础的教学方法对工程实践能力影响的原因以及对今后研究的建议。

The engineering education puts more and more emphasis on training engineering students′ engineering practice abilities,as a result,teaching method based on programs has gained more recognition.This method mainly adopts real or simulated projects as study cases to train engineering students′ cognitive and practical abilities.By referring to the psychologist Bandura′s Self-efficacy Theory,this paper aims to conduct a quantitative research on the actual effects of this teaching method,and discuss the influences and significance on engineering education and teaching.According to Bandura,hands-on working experience could improve an individual′s confidence in accomplishing a particular task.He names such confidence as self-efficacy.High self-efficacy could help individuals better accomplish a particular job,and even influence their decisions about professions and occupations.Thus,some researchers in engineering education believe that students′ hands-on projects in their learning could improve their self-efficacy of engineering practice,and strengthen their confidence in choosing engineering occupations,and therefore realize the goal of engineering education.Based on this theory and referring to some related experiments and studies conducted in MIT,researchers in this paper have designed a self-efficacy scale for measuring engineering students′ practice abilities.By adopting longitudinal study method,this study has conducted a pre-test and a post-test among students from Beijing University of Technology who elected the course of mechanical design, and measured their self-efficacy.On the basis of the 105 effective samples,this study has discovered that through hands-on programs in the class,students′ engineering practice abilities are improved substantially,which indicates that the teaching method based on programs has a positive effect on students′ practice abilities,and the effect on girls are greater than that on boys.It also briefly analyzes the reasons why such teaching method could impose such a great influence on students′ practice abilities,and proposes some suggestions to future researches.