Evenhouse David, Lee Yonghee, Berger Edward, Rhoads Jeffrey F, DeBoer Jennifer
Department of Engineering and Computing Education, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH USA.
School of Engineering Education, Purdue University West Lafayette, West Lafayette, IN USA.
Int J STEM Educ. 2023;10(1):19. doi: 10.1186/s40594-023-00406-x. Epub 2023 Mar 8.
Much of researchers' efforts to foster wider implementation of educational innovations in STEM has focused on understanding and facilitating the implementation efforts of faculty. However, student engagement in blended learning and other innovations relies heavily on students' self-directed learning behaviors, implying that students are likely key actors in the implementation process. This paper explores the ways in which engineering students at multiple institutions experience the self-directed selection and implementation of blended learning resources in the context of their own studies. To accomplish this, it adopts a research perspective informed by Actor-Network Theory, allowing students themselves to be perceived as individual actors and implementors rather than a population that is implemented upon.
A thematic analysis was conducted in two parts. First, analysis identified sets of themes unique to the student experience at four participant institutions. Then, a second round of analysis identified and explored a subset of key actors represented in students' reported experiences across all institutions. The findings show clear similarities and differences in students' experiences of blended learning across the four institutions, with many themes echoing or building upon the results of prior research. Distinct institutional traits, the actions of the instructors, the components of the blended learning environment, and the unique needs and preferences of the students themselves all helped to shape students' self-directed learning experiences. Students' engagement decisions and subsequent implementations of blended learning resulted in personally appropriate, perhaps even idiosyncratic, forms of engagement with their innovative learning opportunities.
The institutional implementation of blended learning, and perhaps other educational innovations, relies in part on the self-directed decision-making of individual students. This suggests that instructors too hold an additional responsibility: to act as facilitators of their students' implementation processes and as catalysts for growth and change in students' learning behaviors. Developing a greater understanding of students' implementation behaviors could inform the future implementation efforts of faculty and better empower students to succeed in the innovative classroom.
研究人员为促进科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域教育创新的更广泛实施所做的许多努力都集中在理解和推动教师的实施工作上。然而，学生在混合式学习和其他创新中的参与很大程度上依赖于学生的自主学习行为，这意味着学生可能是实施过程中的关键角色。本文探讨了多所院校的工科学生在自身学习背景下自主选择和实施混合式学习资源的方式。为实现这一目标，本文采用了受行动者网络理论启发的研究视角，将学生自身视为个体行动者和实施者，而非被实施的群体。
进行了两部分的主题分析。首先，分析确定了四所参与院校学生经历中独特的主题集。然后，第二轮分析确定并探讨了所有院校学生报告经历中所代表的关键行动者子集。研究结果表明，四所院校学生在混合式学习经历上存在明显的异同，许多主题呼应或基于先前研究的结果。不同的院校特点、教师的行为、混合式学习环境的组成部分以及学生自身独特的需求和偏好都有助于塑造学生的自主学习体验。学生参与混合式学习的决策及其后续实施导致了与创新学习机会相适应的、甚至可能是独特的参与形式。
混合式学习以及其他教育创新的院校实施部分依赖于个体学生的自主决策。这表明教师也肩负着额外的责任：充当学生实施过程的促进者以及学生学习行为成长和变化的催化剂。深入了解学生的实施行为可以为教师未来的实施工作提供参考，并更好地使学生在创新课堂中取得成功。
