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A Comparative Study on the Role of Bloom’s Taxonomy-based Assignments and Project-based Learning on Student Performance in an Undergraduate Fluid Mechanics Course

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

MECH - Technical Session 14: Advanced Pedagogical Techniques

Tagged Division

Mechanical Engineering Division (MECH)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/46427

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Paper Authors

biography

Phapanin Charoenphol Texas A&M University

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Phapanin Charoenphol is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the J. Mike Walker ‘66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. She earned her M.S., and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She teaches thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, engineering laboratory, and senior design studio courses. Her research interests include engineering education and targeted drug delivery. In 2022, she was awarded the ASME Best Teacher Award and earned the ACUE Certificate in Effective College Instruction.

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biography

Arkasama Bandyopadhyay Texas A&M University

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Dr. Arkasama Bandyopadhyay is an Instructional Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University (TAMU). She previously earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from Oklahoma State University and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests span the areas of distributed energy resources, residential demand response, building energy systems, engineering education, and first-year engineering experiences. Some of Dr. Bandyopadhyay's current projects at TAMU include forecasting of residential electricity demand and implementation of Bloom's taxonomy-based assessments in undergraduate mechanical engineering courses. In addition to academic research and teaching, she is heavily involved in mentoring graduate students and first-generation undergraduate students in engineering disciplines within and beyond TAMU.

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Abstract

This paper compares and evaluates the role of two group-based active learning strategies, Bloom’s Taxonomy-based learning (BTL) and project-based learning (PBL), on student knowledge, and comprehension in an undergraduate Fluid Mechanics class. Problems in engineering textbooks are typically designed to require learners to recall facts or apply concepts to solve for numerical answers. Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy framework, these textbook problems are categorized at the lower cognitive levels of Remember and Apply, which may not fully facilitate students’ deep learning. The authors designed and developed Bloom’s Taxonomy-based assignments to include problems at three additional Bloom’s Taxonomy cognitive levels of Understand, Analyze, and Evaluate. Our previous works and others have separately shown that implementing BTL and PBL in addition to textbook problems could deeply engage students in the learning content and enhance students’ critical thinking skills and knowledge comprehension. However, to the best of our knowledge, the impact of these two teaching pedagogies has not been evaluated concurrently. In this study, we conduct a comparative analysis between two groups of students (n = 200) to determine the role of BTL and PBL in a similar class setting. Both groups were taught in active learning classrooms with online polling, in-class group discussions, and in-class assignments. The BTL group was exposed to Bloom’s Taxonomy-based assignments, while the PBL group was involved in a group-term project. Our results show that both BTL and PBL students demonstrated comparable problem-solving skills and statistically similar performances on the common formative and summative assessments. However, students in the BTL section performed better on problems at higher cognitive levels. Our comparative analysis provides insights into how the type of group-based assignments impact overall student learning outcomes.

Charoenphol, P., & Bandyopadhyay, A. (2024, June), A Comparative Study on the Role of Bloom’s Taxonomy-based Assignments and Project-based Learning on Student Performance in an Undergraduate Fluid Mechanics Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46427

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