Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION, AND ASSESSMENT OF HIGH PERFORMANCE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Sharon G. Sauer and Pedro E. Arce

I. INTRODUCTION

ABET EC2000 is looking for positive changes in the engineering curriculum and the teaching process. Instructors should depart from old-fashioned, non-effective methodologies (from the learning point of view), and from non-motivating approaches such the ‘solo performance’ with the back of the instructor to the students and/or with the instructor writing equations, on overhead transparences, so small that the students seated in the back can not see them. Ineffective engineering instructional methodologies have been the reasons for which, in many cases, very good candidates for the engineering profession have abandoned the course work to go to other disciplines. Computer Sciences, English, Communications, and Psychology have been the beneficiary of these “transfers.”

ABET EC2000 reviewers want to see greater dynamics in the engineering learning environment with increased student participation. In fact, these environments must have characteristics much more close to that of the practical aspects of the profession such as teamwork abilities, excellent communications skills, and motivation for life-long learning. (Please see Table 1 below for a Summary of ABET aspects involved in the approach). One of the most overlooked aspects in the training of engineering students is teamwork within synergetic collaborative learning approaches that a student-centered environment can develop. Teamwork, though, is not easy to teach, is time consuming to implement and very difficult to evaluate and, yet, crucial for the completion of a well-rounded engineer. Training students in teamwork requires a completely new type of class (and beyond) environment with totally different activities and instructor teaching practices: one that is more closely positioned to a “sport coach” with the ability to change the learning pace, promote students’ activities, and with a strong command of the psychology of learning. Teamwork also requires the development of new student training methods and new assessment methodologies.

In this contribution, the authors will discuss several aspects related to teamwork within the “group (team) based final exams” approach or “high performance learning environments” for engineering majors (See Arce and Schreiber, 2003). A focal point of the contribution will be on the assessment required in this type of approach. An introduction to the subject may be found in Arce (1999) with other additional characteristics included as well. The subject related to the new type of “professional of instruction” is included in the article by Linda Creighton (Prism, April 2001) on Arce’s coach model of instruction; please see, also, Arce and Arce-Trigatti (2000).

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Sauer, S., & Arce, P. (2003, June), Assessment In High Performance Learning Environments Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12028