quality. Although qualitativeresearchers often conduct phenomenography collaboratively, most often a single individual leadsthe data collection and analysis; others primarily serve as critical reviewers. However, qualitymay be enhanced by involving collaborators as data analysts in “sustained cycles of scrutiny, de-bate and testing against the data” [1, p. 88], thus interweaving unique perspectives and insightsthroughout the analysis process. Nonetheless, collaborating in this intensive data analysis processalso presents unique challenges. In this paper, we (1) describe the processes we are applying inan integrated team-based phenomenographic study, (2) identify how the team approach affectsresearch quality, and (3) reflect on the challenges
were collected electronically. The solutions were then graded by theresearcher using a scoring rubric called the Quality Assurance Guide (Table 2). Second, for theteams analyzed in this study, the researcher and the TA rated the team functioning using the TAObservation Tool (Table 3). Immediately following the conclusion of the MEA, the studentsindividually completed an online survey called the Team Effectiveness Tool (Table 4), and latercompleted the MEA Reflection Tool (Table 5).The quality of the student team solution is rated using a rubric called the Quality AssuranceGuide (Table 2) which assesses whether teams fully met the client’s needs. It is based on a fivepoint scale where five corresponds to “Shareable and Reusable: The solution
exercisestargeted to the course level were open-ended problem-solving assignments with no clear-cut “right” answer or approach, and written assignments with a reflective component,frequently requiring judgment in the face of uncertainty. Table 1, taken from thisprevious study, summarizes the relationship between the steps of problem solving4 andthe components of a complete act of thought as proposed by Dewey5. Dewey’s workforms the foundation for current literature on critical thinking.Problem Solving Complete Act of Thought1. Define the problem (i) a felt difficulty (ii) its location and definition2. Explore a variety of solutions (iii) suggestion of
Michigan. His undergraduate degree is in Agricultural Engineering Technology from Michigan State University. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2019 Measuring the Impact of Experiential LearningAbstractThis is a research paper submitted to the Educational Research and Methods Division.Numerous institutions are focusing on expanding experiential learning opportunities (e.g. client-based projects, international service trips, team competitions, etc.) for engineering students. Kolb[1] defines experiential learning as an iterative process involving conceptualization, activeexperimentation, concrete experience, and reflective observation. Experiential learning has alsobeen identified as an
participants andoften lacks evidence of validity. This paper examines the perceptions and use of engagedthinking, a term that encompasses critical and reflective thinking, by six students throughout a10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates summer program. An analysis of a series ofinterviews conducted with each student throughout their research experience presented themesrelated to prerequisites for engaged thinking (background knowledge, disposition, andtransitional circumstances) which could address some of the shortcomings that have previouslyprevented undergraduate research from reaching its full potential.IntroductionThe development of critical thinking skills represents one of the primary goals of undergraduateengineering education.1-3 In
faculty and student beliefs aboutteaching and learning related to faculty pedagogical activities and actions? Very little prior workintegrates student-side and instructor-side preferences and actions, and this paper extends ourunderstanding of this alignment. We expect that a clearer understanding of the alignmentbetween faculty and students may help explain student academic performance. This paperfocuses on characterizing the alignment, while our future research explores its relationship tostudent outcomes.Our data analysis reveals the following key insights about our research question. Faculty-studentlearning styles misalignment is largest along the active-reflective dimension of the ILS. In turn,faculty who are more misaligned with their
pursue upongraduation. For this study, odyssey project assignments were given to two classes during twodifferent academic years at Arizona State University. The first odyssey project assignment wasgiven to a graduating senior class in the fall semester of the 2014-2015 academic year. The sameassignment was given to a freshman class in the fall semester of the 2016-2017 academic year.As part of the assignment, students were expected to reflect on their time at Arizona StateUniversity, and also map out their plans for the first few years following graduation. They wereexpected to illustrate this as seasons within an “Odyssey Years Timeframe” template. Figure 1shows an example of the odyssey years timeframe template students were expected to
taught courses on the development of reflective teaching practices, and has presented workshops on learning how to learn and developing metacognitive awareness. He has published and presented on engineering design, engineering pedagogies, and instructional development topics. Page 26.80.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2015 Pedagogy of Larger Concerns: Grounding Engineering Faculty Development in Research on Teaching ConceptionsAbstract:This paper presents how the results of a study on teaching conceptions have come to exert both aphilosophical and
were interested ininteractive teaching strategies and were interested in continuous improvement of their teaching.In the second phase, the group leaders formed a teaching development group of their own for ayear before facilitating groups at their own institutions. Four teaching design groups, eachcomposed of 4-7 instructors, met regularly over the course of an academic year. The instructorswere primarily from engineering but some groups included other STEM instructors (includinggraduate students).Throughout the project, we collected meeting notes for each phone conference with the groupleaders. Later in the project, we collected group leader reflections and participant surveys inorder to document the design and implementation of the faculty
class activities found in the scholarly literature. Thesepractices were grounded in experiential and cooperative learning such as visits from experts,round-table discussions, reflections, but still included traditional learning activities such asassigned readings and lectures. Outside the classroom, students actively worked with communitypartners to improve thriving in the community.Gratitude - Gratitude consists of feelings of appreciation for someone in response to receivingintentional benefits, especially at some cost to the benefactor [2], [3]. There are both interpersonaland intrapersonal benefits of gratitude. Gratitude is one of the strongest correlates to emotionalwellbeing [4], life satisfaction, optimism, and reduced anxiety [5]. In
Page 24.66.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2014 A Method for Adjusting Group-Based GradesAbstractGrades for assignments completed as an individual are a reflection of a student’s actual work,whereas the grade for a group assignment is easily confounded by the effects of their teammates(positively and negatively). Assigning grades to individuals for a group project is importantbecause instructors want to assign grades that reflect effort as well as content. Since all studentsin a group typically receive the same grade for a group assignment, group grades have theundesirable effect of obscuring a student’s true performance. Thus, it is desirable to develop amethod which could be
humanperceptions, understandings, and realities are based on the lived experiences of individuals(Cardellini, 2006; Crotty, 1998; Gordon, 2009; Kincheloe, 2005). Individuals create, interpret,and recognize knowledge in diverse and contextual ways (Windschitl, 2002). An individual isseen as an active knower and as a consequence personal reflections on experiences are integral tothe data collection process (Crotty, 1998; Fosnot, 2005; Schwandt, 2001). In the context of thethink aloud method discussed in this paper, students generated knowledge about their problem Page 22.1084.4solving strategies and approaches by reflecting actively and in real-time on
. • The result of a departmental initiative requiring staff to write Learning Objectives for each course highlighted the unfamiliarity and reluctance felt by many staff in engaging with the process of reframing their teaching in this way.It is suggested that a major contributing factor to each of these issues, is the lack ofunderstanding and acknowledgement by engineering academic staff of the usefulness ofeducational “tools” and theory linking, for example, Learning Objectives andAssessment.Nature of the problemIt is suggested that the over-arching problem that needs addressing is how to leadacademics in a research-led university to reflect on their teaching practice with the aid
interaction. Learningis largely mediated by social interaction of students and "More Knowledgeable Others" (e.g.teachers, parents, coaches, peers, experts, etc.)4. The classroom must become more active andengaging. When the students in the course becomes more involved and the professor puts morethought into the course the desired outcome is quite likely. Dee Fink in his workshops across thecountry states that there are two methods engaged teachers can utilize to add meaning to theexperience. “One is by helping students learn about additional things, e.g., about themselves,about others, about learning.2 Students survey responses reflect that they prefer to see onlinecourse-management systems, like WebCT and Blackboard, operate faster and be
Online Learning Environments through Intelligent Fast Failure (IFF)AbstractIn this paper, we address the stimulation of creativity in online learning environments throughour examination of a simple hands-on task aimed at teaching the principles of Intelligent FastFailure (IFF) in the context of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) focused on creativity,innovation, and change. A simple physical “prototyping” exercise involving common householdobjects was designed and presented to a global community of online learners using the CourseraMOOC platform. Data gathered from the task outcomes and student reflections were analyzedwith respect to gender and cultural differences, as well as correlations between the number ofattempts
designers use to generate multiple, diverse design concepts? What heuristics are evident in their concepts? ≠ How did the heuristics impact design outcomes? ≠ What level of conscious reflection do designers have about the use of these heuristics within their own cognitive processes?Research MethodsThe methodology for the study included think-aloud protocol during the design task, followed byretrospective interviews. Data from engineers of various levels of experience were collected toilluminate decisions made in generating and developing concepts. Atman and Bursic19 noted thatresearchers have effectively used verbal protocol studies to identify how designers introduce
applied, transformative, purposive knowledge and growth.51, 52Because professionalization is also an important goal in engineering education, our listculminates with several goals that build from affective, ethical, and cognitive foundations to themore specific abilities we expect of graduating engineering students. Each student and program instructor will be able to 1. recognize in context, discuss, and demonstrate attitudes, behaviors and personal reflection about their rights and responsibilities to themselves, others, society, and the natural world 2. recognize in context, discuss, and demonstrate attitudes, behaviors and personal reflection about their habits and growth, as well as others’, and the implications of
problem solving assets which are knowledge, perception and cognitiveprocessing. The instrument consists of 24-self-report items which require students to indicate thedegree of their problem solving skills across the following domains: problem identification,problem analysis and synthesis, and solution generation. The instrument also measured students’ability in conducting self-directed learning and reflection, which are very important elements indeveloping and enhancing problem solving skills. The instrument shows the degree of students’problem solving process skills, whether they usually take the surface or deep approach. Asample study is performed on a group of students in a third year engineering class which useCPBL as the teaching methodology
, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, orcommunication, as a guide to belief or action.” The three key elements of critical thinking thusare reason, reflection, and judgment. Fundamentally, critical thinking is thinking about thinking,a meta-cognitive process. The combination of reflection and reason leads to the final element,belief in the validity of a premise, process or solution to a problem, which also can lead to action.Critical thinking develops conclusions by deducing or inferring answers to questions and thenreflecting on the quality of the reasoning; the end result is conviction, and in many cases action,based on those conclusions.Bailin et al.4 point out that much literature to that point characterized critical thinking simply
meaning of the world and gain knowledge; identitydevelopment refers to a process of securing and trusting an internal compass; and relationshipdevelopment refers to maintaining one’s internal compass, while engaging in maturerelationships. In order to support student development toward self-authorship, educators first Page 25.1215.2must be aware of the importance of student this construct.More specifically, one strategy that has been shown to both challenge and support studentdevelopment is reflection—making meaning of past experiences. Reflective activities thatencourage and challenge students to engage with difficult and often murky areas have
engineeringproblem solving in support of students’ project planning and progress and as a scaffold forprofessional competency reflection [4].Based on our own first hand experiences and the broader literature investigating the nature ofengineering work [5]–[7], and studies focused on the novice to expert progression [8]–[11], weknow it is critical that students have opportunities to practice and reflect on solving ill-structuredproblems. Such opportunities are fundamental to the development of students’ ways of thinkingand knowing that help them to prepare for the profession. The growth of problem and project basedlearning (PBL) and other active learning experiences speaks to broad acceptance that ill-structuredproblem solving experiences are valuable to
scenarios,describing how educators systematically explore problems and promising solutions in their dailywork.This paper presents a case study of the cognitive heuristics used by a cross-functionalinstructional design team as they modified a second-year embedded systems course for electrical,computer, and software engineering students. In this study, we conducted a qualitative analysisof 15 transcripts (over 17 hours of audio) of meetings during which the team following acollaborative instructional model for course design. Interviews, reflections, design artifacts, andinformal conversations supplemented and contextualized the primary data. Through weeklymeetings and course interventions, the team aimed to promote design thinking, systems thinking
processes 41.Taken as a whole, this body of literature centers on students’ processes of engineering design.This represents another important area for instructors’ assessment: how are students talking andacting in ways that reflect expert design practice and support their engineering.Students’ perspectives within and about engineering designA third line of research in engineering education explores students’ perspectives within andabout learning engineering design. Some of this research examines student perspectives based onevidence gathered in situ as students work on engineering design tasks. Researchers draw on thenotion of framing 42, 43, 44 and emphasize the importance of examining how students interpret andcoordinate different perspectives of
how it can be represented in a particularengineering discipline (Stages 1-3). Students then learn technical skills that can be applied to areal-world data derived from that same GC (Stages 4-5). Students end by reflecting on the skillsrequired for their problem solving and the relevance of those skills to other aspects of the GC(Stage 6). More details about each stage are provided in the following sections.Stage 1: Multi-Disciplinary Overview. The course instructor provides an overview of a GCtheme, often incorporating information from outside engineering (e.g., a guest technical expertfrom another field; general-interest or political/economic assignments; an in-class debate). Thisoverview (and the interactions with students) provides the
activitiesrequire some low-level processing on the part of the student, reflecting tasks such assummarizing information, interpreting graphs, and collecting data. Level 3 tasks generallyrequire students to apply content and skills they have learned to complete activities such asanalyzing data, explaining using course concepts, and revising work. Last, Level 4 tasks such assynthesizing, designing, and reflecting on one’s own learning require the highest level ofcognitive engagement. In addition to these nuances of student activity, the protocol also capturesthe instructor’s stated learning objectives for the class and the observer’s judgment of thealignment between the objectives and the classroom activities.The ELCOT and Existing Observation Protocol
throughthe ABET standards. How does a student become a reflective thinker and effectiveproblem solver? This paper considers the role that text literacy may play in advancingengineering students toward the goal of making them reflective and creative problem-solvers.A bit of skepticism may surround the idea that effective reading has much to do withengineering. Indeed, some educators have suggested that course textbooks provide nomore than supplemental information and can be disposed of. To a large degree,associating scientific literacy with the passive deciphering of the words in a sciencetextbook takes too narrow a view of the concept 2. Rather, scientific literacy in afundamental sense encompasses all the basic abilities of skilled reading, but
generation processes. For example, an interview question may be wordedin such a way that it reflects the experiences and worldview of somebody who speaksAppalachian English versus African American English. To offset this possibility, the researchteam should consult with people who are familiar with the language and culture of the researchparticipants and ask them to evaluate data generation protocols as well as early collected data. Insummary, researchers can enact several validation procedures to increase the likelihood that theirdata generation methods are culturally responsive and result in a fit between a social reality andthe research report, rather than a deficit view. These steps include: • Recognize subtle (or non-subtle) linguistic
bereplaced by new and scientifically correct ones. Most importantly, learners’ naive theories needto be taken into account. Some strategies therefore begin by triggering the learners’ priorconceptions and allowing them to reflect on their thinking. Next, students are provided withcontrasting evidence to generate a contradiction to their former naïve theories. In essence, theconceptual change framework suggests inducing a cognitive conflict between an individual’sideas and contrasting evidence.Research has shown that in science such instructional strategies are effective in changingstudents’ ideas. For example, Hake6 showed that student-centered learning methods improveconceptual understanding more than traditional learning methods. In this manner
reflect on the deeper rootcauses and instead focus on the superficial error. Without deep reflection students may not gainthe awareness that they need to confront misconceptions or make strategic changes in theirlearning. The second tool tested is the assignment correction, a variant of exam wrappers butused for more frequently occurring activities such as homeworks or quizzes. The idea is that,perhaps, improving metacognition requires frequent practice. If the exam wrapper could beadapted for use with graded assignments, it would provide such practice. To remain a tool that iseasy to use, however, assignment corrections must be briefer than an exam wrapper, easy toassign, collect and score, and continue to consume little to no class time for
be reflected in the different types of resourcesprevalent within these “worlds.” The research described in this paper aims to deepen insight ofengineering concept representation, description, and usage in academia and practice (i.e. theworkplace).Two specific issues guided the use of roundabout design as the medium for analyzing conceptuse, representation, and description: 1) roundabouts are specific transportation design facilities emerging in use and design within the United States, and 2) the design of roundabouts served as the larger context for an ongoing case study exploring concept use, representation, and interpretation in engineering activity and interactions.The application of roundabouts as a