Measuring Student Perceptions of Engineering Classroom Activities and the Use of Such Measures by STEM Faculty: The Development of the Student Class Activity and Engagement Instrument
- Conference
- Location
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Seattle, Washington
- Publication Date
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June 14, 2015
- Start Date
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June 14, 2015
- End Date
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June 17, 2015
- ISBN
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978-0-692-50180-1
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Educational Research and Methods
- Page Count
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17
- Page Numbers
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26.1139.1 - 26.1139.17
- DOI
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10.18260/p.24476
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/24476
- Download Count
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711
Paper Authors
David L. Little II Oregon State University
Dr. Little is a post-doc scholar at Oregon State University and a graduate of the STEM Education program at the University of Kentucky. He specializes in education measurement across the STEM disciplines, sustainability education at the post-secondary level, and interdisciplinary research and teaching within the STEM disciplines.
Kathleen Quardokus Fisher Oregon State University
Dr. Kathleen Quardokus Fisher is a post doctoral scholar at Oregon State University. She is currently participating in a project that supports the use of evidence-based instructional practices in undergraduate STEM courses through developing communities of practice. Her research interests focus on understanding how organizational change occurs in higher education with respect to teaching and learning in STEM courses.
Shane A. Brown P.E.
Oregon State University
orcid.org/0000-0003-3669-8407
Shane Brown is an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University. His research interests include conceptual change and situated cognition. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2010 and is working on a study to characterize practicing engineers’ understandings of core engineering concepts.
Milo Koretsky Oregon State University
Milo Koretsky is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Oregon State University. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, all in Chemical Engineering. He currently has research activity in areas related engineering education and is interested in integrating technology into effective educational practices and in promoting the use of higher-level cognitive skills in engineering problem solving. His research interests particularly focus on what prevents students from being able to integrate and extend the knowledge developed in specific courses in the core curriculum to the more complex, authentic problems and projects they face as professionals. Dr. Koretsky is one of the founding members of the Center for Lifelong STEM Education Research at OSU.
Jana Bouwma-Gearhart Oregon State University
Jana L. Bouwma-Gearhart is an associate professor of STEM education at Oregon State University. Her research widely concerns improving education at research universities. Her earlier research explored enhancements to faculty motivation to improve undergraduate education. Her more recent research concerns organizational change towards postsecondary STEM education improvement at research universities, including the interactions of levers (people, organizations, policy, initiatives) of change and documenting the good, hard work required across disciplinary boundaries to achieve meaningful change in STEM education.
Abstract
Measuring Student Perceptions of Engineering Classroom Activities and the Use of SuchMeasures by Engineering FacultyAbstractUsing a theory of differentiated learning activities in the classroom, an instrument (theFrequency of Differentiated Learning Activities Scale) was developed to measure the frequencyof various learning activities from the student perspective. The learning activities identified bythe instrument have been shown to promote significant positive differences in student learning.Benefits and possible uses of such an instrument include (1) a research tool for measuringfrequency of differentiated learning activities in the engineering classroom (and other STEMclassrooms), (2) an instrument capable of providing a quantitative measure of the frequency ofdifferentiated learning activities for instructor self-reflection, and (3) a means to assess if studentperception of classroom activities aligns with what actually occurs in the classroom. Theinstrument was piloted through cognitive interviews with 12 post-secondary undergraduatestudents, including 5 engineering majors, and a content expert review of the guiding frameworkfor the instrument, the item development process, as well as a qualitative review of the finalitems themselves. Results from the pilot study suggest initial validity evidence for theinstrument. Examples of the intended uses are provided as well as engineering faculty feedbackon these intended uses.
Little, D. L., & Quardokus Fisher, K., & Brown, S. A., & Koretsky, M., & Bouwma-Gearhart, J. (2015, June), Measuring Student Perceptions of Engineering Classroom Activities and the Use of Such Measures by STEM Faculty: The Development of the Student Class Activity and Engagement Instrument Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24476
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