Research on Innovation and Creativity in Higher Education in Engineering and Science for Community Colleges: Student Strengths and Challenges

摘要

There is a critical need for more students with engineering and science majors to enter into, persist, and graduate from postsecondary institutions. Increasing the diversity in engineering and science is also a profound identified need. According to national statistics, the largest groups of underrepresented minority students in engineering and science attend United States public higher education institutions and in particular the community colleges. Recent research has indicated that students from these populations who are strong problem solvers, and who understand how to seek assistance and navigate college campuses, are most likely persist to degree completion. Accordingly, this research seeks to examine a sample of non-traditional college students enrolled in science and engineering programs in four urban community colleges to determine (a) the types and frequency of support practices they utilize, (b) how such practices influence their achievement, persistence and transfer status to four year colleges and universities, and (c) how in turn their propensity for innovation and creative problem solving affects such choices and persistence. The study analyzes the pedagogical practices-practices designed to foster successful transfer from community college to four-year colleges and universities and how students' innovative capability influences such transfer capacity. The goals are: (1) to explore the pedagogical practices used to support non-traditional students in community colleges to inform persistence, (2) to understand whether such practices are effective in offering non-traditional students a program that enables them to stay in engineering and science majors and to transfer to a four year college or university, and (3) to determine if students' propensity for innovative problem solving influences use of pedagogical practices and ultimately, transfer persistence. The research targets five research questions: (1) What are the patterns of pedagogical practices that community colleges employ to enhance students' transfer success in engineering and science? (2) Are there discernable profiles of non-traditional students enrolling in engineering and science majors in community colleges that utilize these pedagogical practices? (3) How do students' creative and innovative problem solving approaches influence the choices that they make in using pedagogical support practices? (4) What are the impacts of pedagogical practices and differences among pedagogical practices, on persistence toward students' transfer to colleges and universities? (5) How do students' creative and innovative problem solving approaches influence their persistence toward transfer to engineering and science programs at 4-year universities? This research studies an area and group of students that have been historically understudied, community college students in engineering and science. It builds upon the researchers' current studies of STEM pathways and students' propensity for innovation, both of which are research areas recognized as areas that engineering education must cultivate in students. The research also provides rigorous empirical research on students who have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education research, thereby advancing the knowledge to higher education research communities.