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Using Awareness of Learning Processes to Help Students Develop Effective Teamwork Strategies

Introduction

A large body of research in engineering education has been devoted to the study of engineering student teams. This work focuses on understanding the factors that shape the dynamics, interactions, and performance of teams, identifying pedagogical strategies and resources that improve team functioning, and developing methods of assessment to measure team skills1,2,3,4,5,6. Among the factors that have been studied are students’ learning processes, commonly measured using learning styles inventories.

This study employs a particular instrument, the Learning Connections Inventory, and methodology, the Let Me Learn® process, for characterizing the individual learning processes of students. The Let Me Learn® (LML) process is a comprehensive strategy for building metacognitive awareness in students. LML differs from learning styles approaches in that learning styles typically identify the learner with a personality type or category rather than a profile reflecting degree of preference for multiple interacting patterns, and also in that LML emphasizes the learner’s capacity to use his/her patterns strategically to adapt to different learning expectations instead of merely seeking compatible learning conditions. The process begins by having students take the Learning Connections Inventory (LCI). Responses to the LCI’s 28 statements about learning preferences, using a Likert scale ranging from Always to Never Ever, yield a profile of the extent to which an individual utilizes each of four types of patterned learning processes, listed below with some of the key preferences characterizing each pattern:

Sequence (organization, planning, order, structure) Precision (information, details, knowing for the sake of knowing) Technical Reasoning (hands-on learning, relevance, self-sufficiency) Confluence (risk, innovation, alternative views, freedom from rules)

All learners are capable of using any or all of these patterns but have preferences which the LCI quantifies. The scaled responses are scored on a scale of 1 (Never Ever) to 5 (Always) and there are seven statements associated with each of the four learning patterns, so scores for each pattern range from 7 to 35. Each individual pattern is measured along a continuum of “Use First” (25- 35), “Use as Needed” (18-24), or “Avoid” (7-17). Once a student understands his/her own learning patterns, he or she can:

Forge or intensify use of patterns that he or she prefers to avoid or use only as needed, but needs for particular tasks Tether, or reduce, use of preferred, but task-inappropriate, patterns Understand, appreciate and value peers who have different learning patterns Formulate effective strategies for group tasks based on individual learning patterns

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Dahm, K., & Harvey, R. (2007, June), Using Awareness Of Learning Processes To Help Students Develop Effective Learning Strategies Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2113