Results of a Student Discussion Group on Leadership Concepts

The importance of leadership is widely recognized but rarely addressed in engineering education. Based on readings from Lincoln on Leadership, we engaged students in ten discussion sessions regarding key characteristics of an effective leader. We developed and continually refined our definition of a great leader and a vision statement for our research group. In this paper we document our leadership discussion approach, including subjects covered and discussion questions. We share selected results and student feedback on the effectiveness of this approach. We trust that by sharing our efforts and resources, others will be encouraged and better enabled to engage their students in discussing leadership concepts.     

Linking Project Team Performance with Team Health

Abstract

The effectiveness of using teams to improve an organization's performance has been well documented in both the public and private sectors. Typically, however, an assessment of how well a team is functioning is based solely upon external quantitative measures such as the number of customers served, the number of defective units produced, and other cost, schedule, and performance numbers. While these traditional measures are important to management's assessment of a team's performance, they do not give a complete picture of the team's overall long-term performance potential. In this article, the internal “team health” of a team is defined and postulated to have an impact on the team's long-term performance. Current research is documented that seeks to determine if a positive relationship exists between a team's health and its performance.     

知识型团队内部知识转移与团队绩效的关系

在回顾相关文献的基础上,结合团队知识转移的特点,运用知识转移的工具和技术,构建了知识型团队内部知识转移与团队绩效的整合关系模型,并提出了一系列研究假设。根据模型设计量表,通过对知识型团队的问卷调研获取研究数据,再利用统计软件SPSS AMOS对研究假设进行验证,最后得出相应结论。     

共享心智模型对团队绩效影响的现场研究

本研究采用路径搜索的方法对22个团队共享心智模型进行了测量，并考察了两类共享心智模型（任务模型与团队模型）与团队绩效间的关系。相关分析和层级回归结果显示：任务模型的相似性和准确性分别与团队绩效有显著相关，同时团队模型的相似性越高，团队绩效越高，团队模型的准确性也对团队绩效有显著预测效应，但共享心智模型的相似性和准确性没有对团队绩效产生交互作用。     

团队成员特质与绩效非线性关系——灭火救援团队仿真

以灭火救援人工团队为对象,研究单个团队成员特质变量与绩效之间非线性关系.研究表明:①团队成员特质变量并非取值越高,其对应的绩效越好;②团队成员特质变量间的合理搭配有助于获得更好的团队绩效;③多数情况下,次优绩效团队比最优绩效团队更经济.     

短焦距摄影镜头的拍摄效果与使用技巧

一、摄影造型手段概述影视摄影造型表现手段主要包括: 摄影镜头造型、光线造型、色彩与阶调造型、运动造型, 这几种造型手段各有其规律和特点, 而影视摄影造型乃是集以上各种造型手段之大成。在摄影创作过程中,这几种造型手段相辅相成、相互影响, 发挥着“整体”造型的作用。摄影镜头造型手段是通过摄影镜头及光学附件在感光材料平面聚焦成像, 创造光学影像, 表现被摄景物的形态结构、立体空间、表面质地及空间运, 构成银幕活动影像。摄影镜头对表现景物的形态、质感和神态; 刻画人物性格和内心世界; 交代细节和描绘环境; 增添韵味和烘托气…     

软件企业项目研发团队绩效定性模拟研究

在经典群体绩效理论和团队角色理论的基础上,着重分析了软件企业项目研发团队的正式群体、非正式群体的作用,提出了项目研发团队的绩效影响模型和绩效反馈模型。同时,利用基于过程知识库的定性模拟方法,建立了软件企业项目研发团队的绩效定性模拟模型。最后,使用建立的定性模拟模型对软件企业项目研发团队的绩效进行了预测模拟,并通过结果分析研究了团队中非正式群体对团队整体绩效的影响。     

A Longitudinal Study of Engineering Student Performance and Retention. III. Gender Differences in Student Performance and Attitudes

In a continuing study under way at North Carolina State University, a cohort of students took five chemical engineering courses taught by the same instructor in five consecutive semesters. This report examines gender differences in the students' academic performance, persistence in chemical engineering, and attitudes toward their education and themselves. The women in the study on average entered chemical engineering with credentials equal to or better than those of the men, but exhibited an erosion relative to the men in both academic performance and confidence as they progressed through the curriculum. Possible causes of the observed disparities are suggested and remedial measures are proposed.     

The Effects of Personality Type on Engineering Student Performance and Attitudes

The Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) was administered to a group of 116 students taking the introductory chemical engineering course at North Carolina State University. That course and four subsequent chemical engineering courses were taught in a manner that emphasized active and cooperative learning and inductive presentation of course material. Type differences in various academic performance measures and attitudes were noted as the students progressed through the curriculum. The observations were generally consistent with the predictions of type theory, and the experimental instructional approach appeared to improve the performance of MBTI types (extraverts, sensors, and feelers) found in previous studies to be disadvantaged in the engineering curriculum. The conclusion is that the MBTI is a useful tool for helping engineering instructors and advisors to understand their students and to design instruction that can benefit all of them.     

高校团学学生干部队伍建设的若干矛盾关系探析

文章从效率和公平、功利与奉献、能力与热情、理想与现实、流动与稳定、共青团与学生会、坚持与妥协等若干矛盾关系入手,探析了高校团学学生干部队伍建设的复杂性,并提出了加强学生干部队伍建设的若干办法.     

Designing Sound Scoring Criteria for Assessing Student Performance

Assessment of student performance has become a fundamental aspect of teaching and learning and a key task for engineering educators under new ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) engineering accreditation requirements. Assessment of performance also provides new challenges for many faculty. The purpose of this paper is to fill a void in the literature and assist faculty to meet part of the performance assessment development challenge. Specifically, this paper focuses on a critical feature of performance assessment—the development of scoring criteria. Straightforward guidelines for designing scoring criteria are provided from recent project experiences of the authors. Sample scoring criteria are also provided along with a concrete project example illustrating the development process in an engineering education context.     

创业团队异质性与新创企业成长绩效关系的实证研究:团队整合的中介作用

目的探讨创业团队的不同异质性对新创企业成长绩效的影响和团队整合在创业团队异质性与新创企业成长绩效关系的中介作用。方法采用问卷调查法获得制造业和服务业共202份有效问卷数据。结果(1)创业团队的一般异质性与专长异质性都对新创企业成长绩效具有显著正向影响;(2)团队整合对创业团队专长异质性与企业绩效之间的关系具有完全中介作用。结论创业团队异质性越高,新创企业成长绩效越好,创业团队专长异质性通过影响团队整合进而影响新创企业成长绩效。     

基于结果量化的汽车销售物流绩效评估

以汽车销售物流绩效服务水平为研究对象,将平衡计分卡法和层次分析法引入汽车销售物流的绩效评价中,构建了系统科学全面的汽车销售物流绩效评价体系并确定了指标的客观权重,设计了目标实现指数,实现了评价结果与企业战略规划对比,为汽车销售物流业务的量化绩效评估和持续改进提供了有效技术手段。实例验证了该方法的可操作性和实用性。     

The Effects of Physical Environment on Engineering Team Performance: A Case Study

The effects of physical environment on the performance of student teams were evaluated in a timed case study. Six teams worked on an intensive three‐hour problem‐solving event as part of their term project. Successful completion of the project depended on using engineering skills to solve an open‐ended technical problem and produce a one‐page memo defining the solution. The skills needed for this exercise included searching electronic databases for relevant information, analyzing journal publications, developing a kinetic model, applying the model to the problem, making team decisions, and communicating the results in a written product. Three teams performed the exercise in a technology‐training classroom (treatment group), newly constructed and flexibly furnished to accommodate interaction and electronic communication. The remaining three teams (control group) were to find any available space within the Engineering complex. The technology classroom featured flexible, team‐friendly furnishing, and laptop computers with wireless Ethernet connections, giving the students access to Internet database resources and nearby printers. None of the teams selecting their own space chose to work in a traditional classroom. Rather, they all migrated to space that could be used for group discussion, and left these areas to get access to other resources. All groups performed well as teams, probably due to the team training that had been provided to the class prior to the exercise. The three treatment teams in the technology classroom scored significantly better on technical content and communicating their work product in memo form than the control group.     

Spatial Ability,Student Gender,and Academic Performance

Two groups of engineering students were tested for spatial ability (Mental Rotation Test = MRT). There were sex differences favouring males, similar to those seen in other academic programs. There were no significant sex differences in academic course performance, suggesting that differences in spatial ability as measured by the MRT do not have an impact on course performance. In addition, minimal experience with the mental rotation task produced large gains in performance and reduced the magnitude of sex differences. The results suggest that sweeping statements about the relation between differences in spatial ability and performance in science and mathematics subject areas, especially with reference to females, must be viewed with caution.     

Student Perceptions of High Course Workloads are Not Associated with Poor Student Evaluations of Instructor Performance

Many engineering faculty believe that when students perceive a course to have a high workload, students will rate the course and the performance of the course instructor poorly. This belief can be particularly worrying to engineering faculty since engineering courses are often perceived as uniquely demanding. The present investigation demonstrated that student ratings of workload and of overall instructor performance in engineering courses were not correlated (e.g., Spearman's rho = 0.068) in data sets from either of two institutions. In contrast, a number of evaluation items were strongly correlated (Spearman's rho = 0.7 to 0.899) with ratings of overall instructor performance across engineering, mathematics and science, and humanities courses. The results of the present study provide motivation for faculty seeking to improve their teaching and course evaluations to focus on teaching methods, organization/preparation, and interactions with students, rather than course workload.     

A Longitudinal Study of Engineering Student Performance and Retention II. Rural/Urban Student Differences

A cohort of chemical engineering students has been taught in an experimental sequence of five chemical engineering courses, beginning with the introductory course in the Fall 1990 semester. Differences in academic performance have been observed between students from rural and small town backgrounds (“rural students,” N=55) and students from urban and suburban backgrounds (“urban students,” N=65), with the urban students doing better on almost every measure investigated. In the introductory course, 80% of the urban students and 55% of the rural students passed with a grade of C or better, with average grades of 2.63 for the urban students and 1.80 for the rural students (A=4.0). The urban group continued to earn higher grades in subsequent chemical engineering courses. After four years, 79% of the urban students and 64% of the rural students had graduated or were still enrolled in chemical engineering; the others had either transferred out of engineering or were no longer attending the university. This paper presents data on the students' home and school backgrounds and speculates on possible causes of observed performance differences between the two populations.