Mental Models of Students and Practitioners in the Development of an Authentic Assessment Instrument for Traffic Signal Engineering

Conducting fundamental engineering education research on student and practitioner ways of knowing is a critical and often overlooked first step in curriculum and assessment design. This research project determined the core concepts related to and synthesized student and practitioner conceptual understanding of isolated and coordinated signal systems. A modified version of the Delphi Method was used to develop consensus among 16 transportation engineering faculty and engineering professionals on the most consistent, relevant, and core concepts in traffic signals. The most important concepts are warrant analysis (or determining the need or justification for a new signalized intersection) and signal timing, calculations, and phasing. Clinical interviews were conducted with approximately 50 students and 35 early career engineering professionals to investigate, characterize and synthesize their understandings of traffic signal operations. Comparison of understandings are in process to determine differences in how engineering students and early career engineering professionals think about signal design and to determine persistent misconceptions within this discipline. Additionally, interviews are being analyzed to determine common misconceptions. This research will produce a taxonomy of differences in the knowledge of students and early career engineering professionals related to traffic signals and a summary of misconceptions. These project outcomes will be the basis of a newly-developed concept inventory and curriculum, such as inquiry based conceptual exercises and assessments, both of which will be situated in authentic engineering thinking and design. This study is significant because it fundamentally advances the field by identifying differences in conceptual understanding between practicing engineers and students with respect to the design and operation of traffic signal systems. Traffic signals are a central component of transportation infrastructure as they directly contribute to the safety and efficiency of the surface transportation system. Project Introduction A large body of research has shown that many graduating students do not possess an understanding of fundamental concepts in fields such as physics , mathematics 2 and engineering . Confounding the lack of conceptual understanding are differences between how academics and engineering professionals think about and apply fundamental engineering concepts. Situated cognition experts contend that knowledge only exists in context and has very limited meaning and usefulness when taught out of context 4, . An urgent educational need exists to better integrate engineering students within the context of engineering practice and to develop, implement, and assess curricular materials that represent this integration, including high quality assessment instruments. No concept inventory instruments currently exist in transportation engineering, and no existing engineering concept inventory (CI) instruments have been validated in engineering practice. The lack of situated or contextual curricular materials integrating conceptual understanding and practice impedes students’ abilities to be productive and innovative engineers. P ge 23896.2 Project Goals, Objectives, and Specific Aims The objective of this research effort is to synthesize early career engineering professionals’ and students’ ways of knowing traffic signals and use this knowledge to develop a concept inventory in traffic signal operations that is relevant to engineering practice. The rationale for the work was that conducting fundamental engineering education research on student and practitioner ways of knowing is a critical and often overlooked first step in curriculum and assessment design and having an engineering design relevant traffic signal operations concept inventory (TSCI) will provide explicit evidence of what is important for students to know, how much they know about these important concepts, and how and where to focus transportation engineering design courses. The specific aims of the Research Plan included the following elements: I. Determine core concepts for isolated, coordinated, and systems of traffic signals. A modified version of the Delphi Method was utilized to develop consensus among transportation engineering faculty and engineering professionals on the most consistent, relevant, and core concepts in traffic signals. The modified method incorporated both anonymous and collaborative practices. II. Synthesize student and practitioner conceptual understanding of isolated, coordinated, and systems of traffic signals. Validated clinical demonstration interviews were conducted with approximately 30 students and 25 early career engineering professionals, (15 students each from Washington State University (WSU) and Oregon State University (OSU)) to investigate, characterize and synthesize their understandings of traffic signal operations. Comparison of understandings were conducted to determine differences in how engineering students and early career engineering professionals think about signal design and to determine persistent misconceptions within this discipline. III. Develop a situated concept inventory for isolated, coordinated, and systems of traffic signal. The TSCI will be developed based on interview and concept prioritization results, assessment and misconceptions theory and established protocols for CI development. IV. Implement TSCI at 12 Universities throughout the US and Disseminate Research Results. The TSCI will be implemented in undergraduate and graduate transportation engineering courses at a minimum of 12 universities across the country, resulting in a large data set to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. Engineering faculty at these 12 universities have already committed as early adopters, but it is expected that additional institutions will be identified. Current/Past Activities In alignment with the three foundations of quality assessment, the steps for creating a TSCI are listed below . These steps may be iterative, depending on the complexity of the subject matter and the success of the initially developed TSCI.