25 Years of Frontiers Educational Research: The Call for Action-Oriented Research

摘要

Since the first FIE conference a quarter of a century ago, our engineering educational research at Purdue has shifted from status-quo oriented research to action-oriented research. Earlier our emphasis was on providing information, examining relationships, identifying strengths and delineating problems. We analyzed the correlation of high school grades and test scores with college GPA. We documented trends in enrollment, grades, and retention. We surveyed students and graduates regarding the quality and relevance of their education. Sometimes we even defined areas requiring action. However, after the first FIE Conference 25 years ago, our research efforts shifted to action-oriented research. How could we use educational research information to change and improve engineering education? In this paper we will describe action-oriented research that has significantly improved placement in beginning courses, helped students make more informed career decisions, increased and retained more women and minority students, and enhanced our programs for honors and higher risk stu-dents. We will also describe how we have extended our educational research efforts beyond our own campus and are sharing our educational research findings and action-oriented programs with other institutional settings and colleagues all over the world. And lastly, we will speculate on what direction institutional and collaborative engineering educational research is likely to take during the next quarter of a century.