Paper Authors

Abstract

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

Session 1547

ET Students’ Perceptions of the Most Important Means of Learning

Henry G. Ansell, Ralph V. Staus Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College

Abstract

This paper concerns engineering technology students’ perceptions of what is most important to their learning. Day and evening, baccalaureate and associate degree technology students were asked to rate the following, according to how important they have been to their learning in their technical subjects: reading the textbook; consulting with other students out-of- class; listening to lectures concerning concepts and relationships; listening to lectures on how to solve problems; working on homework problems; working out new problems during the class session; going over problems in class that the student has previously attempted and worked on, such as homework problems; asking questions of the instructor during class; consultation sessions with the instructor to clarify what seems unclear; using the library resources; doing laboratory exercises; studying for an exam; reviewing returned and corrected exams; and reviewing returned and corrected lab reports.

Most important to the students, on average, was listening to lectures that explain how to solve problems. Next in importance were in-class reviews of problems that students had previously attempted, and doing homework problems. Following in importance were studying for an exam, and in-class practice in solving problems. Other highly important activities were reviewing returned and corrected exams, and listening to lectures concerning concepts and relationships.

The paper goes over the various results that were found, and suggests possible explanations.

Introduction

Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College, in Reading and Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, comprises two small branch campuses that are part of The Pennsylvania State University. The survey was conducted at the larger of the two campuses, which is in Reading. The college has several functions. It serves as a feeder for the main Penn State campus at University Park. This includes offering the courses of the first two years of the baccalaureate engineering programs. The college now offers several baccalaureate programs that do not require transfer to University Park or elsewhere for their completion. These programs include a BS program in Electro- Mechanical Engineering Technology, which is a “2+2” program. Entrance into this program requires an Associate degree in either Electrical Engineering Technology or Mechanical Engineering Technology. The college also offers various Associate degree programs, including

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

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

Staus, R., & Ansell, H. (2001, June), Et Students' Perceptions Of The Most Important Means Of Learning Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9233