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Work in Progress: Fostering Cognitive Engagement with Hands-on Learning Pedagogy

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

ERM Technical Session 17: Student Cognitive Development

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--33622

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/33622

Download Count

416

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Paper Authors

biography

Olusola Olalekan Adesope Washington State University

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Dr. Olusola O. Adesope is a Boeing Distinguished Professor of STEM Education at Washington State University, Pullman. His research is at the intersection of educational psychology, learning sciences, and instructional design and technology. His recent research focuses on the cognitive and pedagogical underpinnings of learning with computer-based multimedia resources; knowledge representation through interactive concept maps; meta-analysis of empirical research, and investigation of instructional principles and assessments in STEM. He is currently a Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Education.

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biography

Negar Beheshti Pour Washington State University

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Negar Beheshtipour received her B.S. in Polymer Engineering at Tehran University where she also taught as a teacher assistant. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Chemical Engineering at Washington State University (WSU). Her primary fields of technical research are fluid mechanics of bubbles and the applications of capillary channels for gas-liquid phase separation in microgravity or small-scale systems. Besides her technical research, she has done research in engineering education focusing on improving undergraduate STEM education through in-class hands-on activities. She has been involved in the design and development of ultra-low-cost desktop learning modules (LC-DLMs) that allow engineering students to conduct investigations to learn fundamental principles of fluid mechanics and heat transfer.

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Bernard J. Van Wie Washington State University

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Prof. Bernard J. Van Wie received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D., and did his postdoctoral work at the University of Oklahoma where he also taught as a visiting lecturer. He has been on the Washington State University (WSU) faculty for 36 years and for the past 22 years has focused on innovative pedagogy research as well as technical research in biotechnology. His 2007-2008 Fulbright exchange to Nigeria set the stage for him to receive the Marian Smith Award given annually to the most innovative teacher at WSU. He was also the recent recipient of the inaugural 2016 Innovation in Teaching Award given to one WSU faculty member per year.

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biography

David B. Thiessen Washington State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-4283-5914

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David B.Thiessen received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado in
1992 and has been at Washington State University since 1994. His research interests include fluid
physics, acoustics, and engineering education.

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Abstract

Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris (2004) define cognitive engagement as the effort students invest in understanding what they are learning. Indeed, cognitive engagement is critical for effective teaching and learning in engineering. Although there is research evidence showing that students learn better with hands-on approaches than traditional lectures, little is known about student differential levels of cognitive engagement that underlie such improved learning. As part of a large program of federally-funded research, our research team has developed light-weight, portable, ultra-Low-Cost Desktop Learning Modules (LC-DLMs) that enable students to employ systems experientially to illustrate the physics that underlie transfer processes and provide students with visual cues to help develop robust understanding of the fundamentals of momentum, heat and mass transfer. The purpose of this work-in-progress is to report on an ongoing project that used Chi and Wylie (2014)’s Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive (ICAP) framework (I > C > A > P) to survey the degree to which LC-DLMs foster cognitive engagement as students learn about a venturi meter in a fluid mechanics and heat transfer course. Sixty-seven (67) participants used LC-DLMs to learn venturi concepts in an engineering course. Overall, preliminary results show that the majority of the participants reported that LC-DLMs helped foster active, constructive, and interactive forms of engagement far more than lectures did. For example, all but two of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that the use of LC-DLMs helped promote interactive forms of engagement such as discussion with peers, asking and answering questions and clarifying understanding with peers through robust discussions. Some open-ended items solicited information about the physical features of the LC-DLMs that were helpful in learning venturi concepts and ways the LC-DLMs hindered or enhanced their engagement and learning. Most of the participants reported that the visual cues afforded by LC-DLMs made the venturi concepts more relatable and helped them develop conceptual understanding better than if they had only been taught using lectures.

Adesope, O. O., & Beheshti Pour, N., & Van Wie, B. J., & Thiessen, D. B. (2019, June), Work in Progress: Fostering Cognitive Engagement with Hands-on Learning Pedagogy Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33622

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