Conference Session

ERM Potpourri

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Turns, University of Washington; Jessica Yellin, University of Washington; Yi-Min Huang, University of Washington; Kathleen Gygi, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

activity coding shows that participants were getting adviceon their writing (e.g., grammar and style issues), an opportunity to judge the effectiveness oftheir writing through clarification requests from the colleagues, information necessary toimprove the documents through the genre negotiations and audience discussions, and evensupport for gaining confidence in their writing through the affective interactions. Theclarification codes indicate that participants were encouraged to articulate and explain theirportfolio elements—their peers challenged their conceptions of teaching, wished for evidence toback up the claims in their statements, or were unclear about the terminology used in theirstatements. By doing so, participants would have the

Conference Session

ERM Potpourri

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katie Sullivan, University of Utah; April Kedrowicz, University of Utah

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

instruction in this course was similar to thespeaking instruction, although the averages were slightly lower (see table 6).Item Mean ModeThe writing instructor’s lecture and peer review facilitation effectively 3.00 3.00assisted me in understanding how to organize a proposal.The writing instructor’s lecture and peer review facilitation effectively 2.89 3.00assisted me in understanding how to write a proposal.The writing instructor’s feedback on my review draft was helpful. 2.97 3.00I applied feedback to subsequent writing assignments. 3.40 3.00The writing instructor encouraged me to develop my writing

Conference Session

Knowing Our Students II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Todd Johnson, Washington State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

study was to understand reported motivation and learning strategies forstudents enrolled in an introductory computer science course (n = 111). Comparisons were madebetween freshman (n = 57) and other undergraduates (n = 54) [sophomores (n = 24) and juniors(n = 30)]. A commonly used instrument called the Motivational Strategies for LearningQuestionnaire (MSLQ) was used to assess motivations (value, expectancy, and affective) andlearning strategies (cognitive/metacognitive and resource management strategies) of thesestudents. Results showed variations in both motivation and learning strategies between the twogroups with freshman reporting a greater task value in the course, while other undergraduatesreported a greater reliance on peer learning

Conference Session

Knowing Our Students II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Turns, University of Washington; Steve Lappenbusch, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

and to introduce the next activity. The activitiesin the cross-curricular program included: a) learning about portfolios in general, b) evaluatingother portfolios, c) writing a professional statement, d) finding artifacts, e) deciding whichartifacts to include in the portfolio, f) writing annotations for the artifacts, g) getting peer andprofessional feedback, and h) presenting the portfolio to others. The interaction amongst peersand the teaching faculty member provided ample opportunity to deeply explore the issuesstudents faced, the component activities, and how those issues and activities interacted during theportfolio creation.Six students participated in this study. These students included two seniors on the verge ofgraduating, two

Conference Session

Curricula of the Past, Present, and Future

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cristina Pomales-Garcia, University of Michigan; Yili Liu, University of Michigan; Virginia Soto, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

) educational technology, (3) the student’s rolein the engineering college, and (4) the professor’s role in the engineering college. Theparticipants were instructed to write 10 words or phrases that come to their mind when they thinkabout each of the questions and rank their answers in the order of importance. Following theindividual questions, ten questions were discussed in a focus group. The results of the studyshowed that when it comes to evaluation of education and teaching methods, students would liketo see more opportunities to give input in the system and be more involved as part of the creationin all levels and steps. Current literature on Excellence in Engineering Education stresses theimportance of skills and knowledge but leaves out two

Conference Session

Innovative Classroom Techniques

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Todd Johnson, Washington State University; Reid Miller, Washington State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

of the curriculum tostimulate learning through independent thinking, communication with peers, and interaction withthe instructor. Voluntary peer tutorials were held each week by outstanding juniors in chemicalengineering who took the course the previous year. Also, short writing assignments were used toprovide the instructor with background information about each student, provide midtermfeedback to the instructor, and to stimulate student thinking about certain tangential aspects ofthe course; like careers, history and famous women in engineering.For the blended instruction course (experimental group), new elements included the following:1) course was set up under university-licensed software as a web-based course using WebCT(even though it

Conference Session

ERM Potpourri

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Barbara Lovitts, National Academy of Engineering; Norman Fortenberry, National Academy of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

Underlying Educational InterventionsThe Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) at theNational Academy of Engineering has developed a web-based database that summarizes theavailable research on educational interventions designed to enhance student learning, retention,and professional success (see www.PR2OVE-IT.org -- Peer Reviewed Research OfferingValidation of Effective and Innovative Teaching). The website is similar to the U.S. Departmentof Education’s What Works Clearinghouse (http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/>), except thatPR2OVE-IT does not engage in extensive pre-screening of papers for rigor. Rather, we leavejudgments of rigor up to individual users of the system and focus instead on summarizing theresults of

Conference Session

Building Communities for Engineering Education Research

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heidi Diefes-Dux, Purdue University; Robin Adams, Purdue University; Monica Cox, Purdue University; Deborah Follman, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

. Then new teams, inwhich each team member had expertise regarding a different learning activity, were formed andcharged to rank the five activities from least- to best-aligned with formal cooperative learningprinciples. In a separate learning activity, student teams postulated the values and philosophy ofan engineering instructor who incorporates cooperative learning in his/her classes.Student teaching and research philosophies and their elevator speeches went through at least oneiteration cycle, with students receiving feedback from classmates, the course instructors, and, inthe case of the teaching philosophies, peers from the Laboratory for User-Centered EngineeringEducation (LUCEE8) at the University of Washington (LUCEE is devoted to

Conference Session

Faculty Development

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rebecca Brent, Education Designs Inc.; Richard Felder, North Carolina State University; Sarah Rajala, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

, including designing and starting up aresearch program and getting it funded, attracting and managing graduate students, finding andworking with appropriate faculty or industrial collaborators, planning courses and deliveringthem effectively, writing assignments and tests that are both rigorous and fair, dealing withclassroom management problems and cheating and students with a bewildering assortment ofacademic and personal problems, doing what it takes to learn about and integrate into the campusculture, and finding the time to do all that and still have a life. Figuring out how to do all these things is not trivial. Robert Boice studied the careerdevelopment of new faculty members and found that most of them take between four and fiveyears

Conference Session

Knowing Our Students I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mica Hutchison, Purdue University; Deborah Follman, Purdue University; George Bodner, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

experience, explained that herinability to learn the new material quickly had the strongest influence on her confidence incourse success, leading to the development of negative efficacy beliefs. I’d have to say how fast I learn [the material affects my confidence in succeeding the most]; because some people seem like they just catch on so, like so quick. And I’m just kind of like slow or something ‘cause I can’t like figure it out right away. Um, like in lab, we always have to write these scripts and like I can do it eventually - but some of the people will be done like ten minutes later; they’ll be like, “Are you done?” I’m like “No!”, ‘cause it just like takes me more time to do stuff and . . . aah - it’s

Conference Session

Building Communities for Engineering Education Research

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sally Fincher, University of Kent at Canterbury; Josh Tenenberg, University of Washington-Tacoma

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

task-oriented, focussed on two tasks. Firstly, the group worked to analyse theaggregated data from the experiment kit, and jointly write a paper to report it. Secondly, eachparticipant worked on a design for their own research study. In contrast to workshop one, most ofthe input in this workshop was from the participants, presenting and discussing their experiencesof using the experiment kit to completion, and reflecting on research in general. The tasks of theworkshop leaders were in structuring interventions to maximise the effectiveness of the analysisand writing, and in working with participants on their new study designs. Page 11.296.4The

Conference Session

Factors Affecting Student Performance

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rick Covington, California State University-Northridge; G. Michael Barnes, California State University-Northridge

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

feel that the assessment survey techniquedescribed here has merit and is a worthwhile contribution. The characteristics for this techniquethat most strongly recommend it are: 1. It is brief 2. It is administered at regular periodic intervals 3. It provides timely feedback about the class’s last assessment results either from the perspective of the instructor’s expectations, or peer expectations (descriptive statistics of the student’s last assessment).We believe that the surveys are generic, and should therefore be applicable in the Engineeringcurriculum where there are extended projects, such as lab based or design courses. Readersinterested in incorporating assessment techniques into their college classroom should see

Conference Session

Building Communities for Engineering Education Research

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robin Adams, Purdue University; Philip Bell, University of Washington; Cheryl Allendoerfer, University of Washington; Helen Chen, Stanford University; Larry Leifer, Stanford University; Lorraine Fleming, Howard University; Bayta Maring, University of Washington; Dawn Williams, Howard University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

Academic Pathway Study17. CONDUCTING A YEAR-LONG RESEARCH STUDY: During the academic year Scholars are mentored (by both peers and experts) as they finalize and implement a research study. A variety of methods are used to sustain community and provide resources for moving studies forward (e.g., just-in-time presentation of content, work-in-progress meetings, invited experts across the community). A web-based “wiki” tool, Idealog, is used to build and support a community of practice culture among the Scholars, both during the Summer Summit and when they return to their home campus18,19. The Idealog is like an informal sketchbook in which Scholars have a shared space to capture information and inspiration in ways that

Conference Session

Curricula of the Past, Present, and Future

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yvonne Ng, College of St. Catherine; Lori Maxfield, College of St. Catherine

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

writing. Some programs require courses explicitly focused on these topics while othersdesign courses that exercise students in these areas. A senior engineering student is expected todefine the problem concretely, gather information, brainstorm, build prototypes to evaluate thepossible solutions, and effectively propose a reasonable solution that satisfies requirements.2.3.3 CONNECTIONS ParallelThe Curriculum of Connections provides an extension from the Core Curriculum and requiresinstructors to design courses that allow students to discover and learn from theinterconnectedness of knowledge.20, p.23 Connection curriculum allows students to applyconcepts, principles, and skills: • across disciplines; • across time and time periods

Conference Session

Student Teams and Design Skills

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven Zemke, Gonzaga University; Donald Elger, University of Idaho

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

lab 0 1 Project review grading with the rubrics 2 5 Contrast between student vs. professional culture 2 8 Giving constructive feedback 5 9 Too little time in lab to complete a project 0 15 Writing a team contract 0 20Table 6. Tallies of curricular factors ranked as “most helpful 3” or “least helpful 3” fordeveloping professional teamwork. Effect of Teammate’s Actions on the Professional Teamwork Most Positive

Conference Session

Knowing Our Students II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joachim Walther, University of Queensland; David Radcliffe, University of Queensland

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

information or advice (Gundling33 describes “network, gets things done through others” as an innovation trait sought by 3M, compare also “use peer support” in Scott34) • Time management (Parkinson35 classifies this as an enabling skill for life-long learning, compare also Graduate Attribute x in AMEA4)The mechanism of accidental competency acquisition identified in this example can becharacterized as a meta-effect of curricular elements. The individual parts are the individualcourses the student has to combine to achieve a valid degree schedule. On a higher or meta- Page 11.557.8level this poses a new learning task of dealing with a

Conference Session

Knowing Our Students III

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Guili Zhang, University of Florida; YoungKyoung Min, University of Florida; Matthew Ohland, Clemson University; Timothy Anderson, University of Florida

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

2006-1336: THE ROLE OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ENGINEERINGATTRITIONGuili Zhang, University of Florida Guili Zhang is research assistant professor in College of Engineering, University of Florida. She received a Ph.D. in Research and Evaluation Methodology at the University of Florida. She also received a B.A. in British and American Language and Literature at Shandong University, China, and a Master of Education degree at Georgia Southern University. Previously, she served as a staff development specialist and researcher at Jinan District Education Commission, China, and took part in the writing and revision of the National Unified Text Books and Teacher’s Reference Books. She