Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Barbara Olds

Session 2261 Reflection as an Assessment Measure Barbara M. Olds Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO 80401I. IntroductionAs I teach and advise engineering students, I am constantly amazed at their motivation, theircapacity for hard work, their intelligence. But I am also often amazed at their lack of self-awareness, at their “can’t see the forest for the trees” approach to getting through each hour, eachday, each semester, a college education. They refer, often jokingly, to “getting out,” instead ofgraduating, and they

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Lesley Jolly; David Radcliffe

develop a reflexiveapproach to their work. This has been done in the context of project-based, design courses,involving both individual and group work in the disciplines of mechanical and chemicalengineering. We conclude that student attitudes clearly evidenced the need for engineering staffto model reflective practice and place regular emphasis on its value as a professional learningtool. Exercises in reflective thinking are most effective if integrated into other more ‘traditional’engineering tasks rather than being set as ‘stand alone’ tasks. We argue that the best way tomake expert knowledge accessible to non-experts is through getting the experts to reflect on theirsuccesses and failures.IntroductionEngineers and engineering students have

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael S. Pritchard; Edmund Tsang

societalcontext.” Most literature on engineering ethics and, to a lesser degree, on societalaspects of technology, focuses on the negative of wrongdoing, its prevention, andappropriate sanctions of misconduct. This paper proposes a more positive approach toteaching engineering ethics and social impact of technology via service-learning byoffering justifications for the pedagogy based on engineering codes of ethics. This paperexamines reflection issues in engineering, without which the full benefit of the service-learning pedagogy cannot be realized. The paper concludes by offering suggestions onreflection course materials for three types of service-learning projects found commonlyin engineering.Service-learning is “a form of experiential education in

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven B. Shooter; Catherine A. Shooter

through meaningful reflection. The result is thatstudents gain more than just the experience of completing a design, but an enrichment andrealization of the methods and skills developed.I. IntroductionMany engineers contend that design is the heart of engineering. Traditional engineeringcurricula were based on the concept that a strong foundation in engineering sciences wouldnaturally lead to better designers. The curriculum would often contain some form of a capstonedesign experience where students would be given a design problem to resolve. The students mayor may not have been taught how to best approach the solution to the design problem. At the endof the allotted time period (a semester or some other number of weeks), the design project

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark McNeill; Steven Shooter

through meaningful reflection. The result is thatstudents gain more than just the experience of completing a design, but an enrichment andrealization of the methods and skills developed.I. IntroductionMany engineers contend that design is the heart of engineering. Traditional engineeringcurricula were based on the concept that a strong foundation in engineering sciences wouldnaturally lead to better designers. The curriculum would often contain some form of a capstonedesign experience where students would be given a design problem to resolve. The students mayor may not have been taught how to best approach the solution to the design problem. At the endof the allotted time period (a semester or some other number of weeks), the design project

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Virginia Elkins; Roy Eckart; Catherine Rafter; Ali Houshmand; Eugene E. Rutz

Page 5.286.2database of previous research. Past reports, however, have not been conclusive in matchinglearning styles with delivery methods. This study will add to the body of knowledge and providerecommendations from correlations that may emerge. Second, these are very differentinstruments: the MBTI is a personality indicator and the Kolb Learning Style Indicator is basedon a cycle of learning. Kolb’s method describes four different learning modes: concreteexperience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Theseare illustrated in Figure 1. Concrete Experience Learning by experiencing ACCOMODATING

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Joan A. Burtner

exercises related to team roles, stages of teamdevelopment and typical team problems, 4) a team-readiness self-assessment essay, and 5)periodic team assessment reports.The design of the teamwork module encourages students to use a combination of cognition,reflection and experience to improve their teamwork skills. The Venn diagram below showshow the three relate. Cognition W Experience X Y Z Reflection Figure 1. The Teamwork ModuleThe section marked W represents a combination of cognition and experience. The W activitiesinclude jigsaw exercises

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Sheila A. O'Connor; Don Malzahn

the students. Students were surveyed initiallyto determine their prior experiences with teams, their preferences related to learning styles,decision styles, and conflict resolution styles, and their knowledge about team processes.Throughout the semester the students reflected on questions related to their teamfunctioning, completed peer evaluations, weekly team symptom checklists and instrumentsthat measured team cohesion. All of this information was stored in the database and theknowledge-based system accessed the database as needed. The information in thedatabase was also used to perform analysis to determine how the teams functioned anddeveloped over time. The third main component of the model consisted of the seven teamprocess modules

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Hamid Khan

• Simulation Application Steps and strategies used in developing Outcomes Based Evaluation QuestionnaireSchon (1983) stresses that reflective practice demonstrating the outcomes of learning is grounded in thestudents’ appreciation of the system (i.e. repertoire of values, knowledge, theories, and implied practicesexpected of the student learners) [4]. Consequently the preparation of reflective student practitionersrequires not only the elements of the reflective process but also increasing the range and depth ofknowledge in each student’s appreciation of the system.The strategies suggested for the development and inclusion of student reflection in projects included (a)Communicating that knowledge is socially constructed – students were given

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Asad Yousuf

].Fundamental Cognitive Capacities According to Bandura human cognitive capacities that can predict individual’sperformance include ability to use symbols, learning through observation, planning, self-regulation, and self-reflection [1]. A brief description of each of these human cognitivecapacities follows. Ability to Use Symbols. By the use of symbols, humans transform immediate visualexperiences into internal cognitive models that in turn serve as guides for their actions. Throughsymbolizing, people also ascribe meaning, form and duration to their past experiences. Learning Through Observations. Learning can also occur indirectly by observing otherpeople’s behavior and its outcomes. Individuals’ capacity to learn by observation

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Carole E. Goodson; Susan Miertschin

Session 2247 Evolution of a Journal Carole E. Goodson, Susan L. Miertschin College of Technology, University of HoustonSince the inaugural issue of the Journal of Engineering Technology in 1984, the publication hascontinued to evolve, reflecting the culture of the various Engineering Technology (ET)disciplines. The Journal (JET) was conceived at the 1981 Engineering Technology LeadershipInstitute (ETLI) at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ by a focus group that consisted ofLarry Wolf, Durward Huffman, Mike O’Hair, Ron Scott and Ken

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

W. Bradford Cross; Susan M. Morgan; Mark P Rossow

, and the Department secretary will be responsible for reminding faculty tocollect the material and will organize and file the materials.Each portfolio is divided into sections. These sections are: • a table of contents • an introductory statement of purpose for the portfolio and an overview of material included • a reflection on or evaluation of portfolio contents and outcome(s) measured by faculty members • student materials.A typical table of contents contains the following sections: introduction and statement ofpurpose, reflection on and evaluation of content, and student materials and summaries ofevaluation forms. Following is a typical introduction and statement of purpose; this example isfrom the

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Monique Osborn; Dilip Nag

currently offered. In this way academics willbe suitably rewarded in their career path. Yet reflection upon the effectiveness of teaching and Page 5.13.1learning has not always been a crucial practice for engineering academics and consequentlyattendance at formal courses has continued to be infrequent or non-existent. Staffdevelopment activities have also previously been boycotted by Australian academics forreasons of “lack of time available”, “anyone can teach” or “teaching is a personal matter”. Itappears that the Kugel Model of Development [2] can assist to explain this reasoning further.As the academic has been focussed purely on the teaching of a

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

John K. Estell

examine how on-line assessment can beimplemented.1. The PortfolioA portfolio consists of a collection of materials assembled over a period of time that is used toboth demonstrate and document one’s ability in a particular subject. Portfolios are commonlyused in the artistic professions. For example, photographers who specialize in weddings willpresent to the inquiring engaged couple an assembled collection of their work. By constructing aportfolio photographers have the opportunity to reflect upon their work as they select the bestresults from their photographic sessions; similarly, the couple looking to hire someone for theirwedding can use the portfolios to evaluate the ability of each photographer. So not only is theportfolio a means to

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Murali Krishnamurthi

, andlaboratory exercises. The laboratory exercises required students to complete and submit by email Page 5.279.3several exercises on information system application design and development using MS-Access ™.3.1 Discussions: Getting engineering students to discuss in a newsgroup, listserv, or a chatsession on the concepts covered in the course, engage them in a constructive dialog, and helpthem reflect on the course material is generally a difficult task. Many of them would rather solvenumerical problems than convey their thoughts in writing. But there are several ways to enhancestudent – teacher interactions in asynchronous or synchronous

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2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Graciela Munoz Padilla; Francisco J. Gonzalez

. BackgroundThe massification of education in our country has obliged educational institutions, in general, toimprovise their staff. Our school of engineering is not the exception, and since its enrollment hasbeen increasing for quite a number of years, the authorities have seen the need for improvisingits staff created out of its own alumni body, whose formal preparation had been focused towardsvery specific aspects of the curricula and little, if any, related to teaching and education.This improvisation has been extended to all other levels of education also, from elementaryschools to universities, whose consequences are reflected in the preparation levels with whichMexican professionals emerge. This situation is also related to other aspects of the

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Willie Ofosu

11,752 53Hispanic 6,593 2,528 62 6,810 2,911 57White 114,235 98,135 14 112,119 100,174 11Table 2. Student numbers for the academic years 1996-1997 and 1997-1998.Table 1 shows an increase for the different racial groups except White where it shows adecrease for the three years. Table 2 shows the number of students starting 1st Grade and12th Grade for the academic years 1996-1997 and 1997-1998. As stated above, the tabledoes not reflect groups of students who were followed from the first grade throughgraduation from college. The numbers and percentages however indicate some stabilityaround some mean. There are significant drops in percentage

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph A. Shaeiwitz

to the goals of the curriculum, if such goalsactually exist.2 The AAHE basic assessment principles include:3 • Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time • Assessment requires attention to outcomes, but also and equally to the experiences that lead to these outcomes • Assessment works best when it is ongoing.Application of these three basic assessment principles are viewed as a major step in addressingthe problems of a disjointed curriculum with content unrelated to curriculum goals. The idea isto assess education as it is delivered, to integrate assessment with teaching and make assessmentpart of an instructors

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Molly M. Gribb; Elisabeth M. Alford

in creating writing-related activities that would serve thebroader goals of the course: helping students succeed and stay in engineering. These newlistening, reading, writing and oral communications assignments introduce freshmen to theexcitement of engineering and help them envision themselves as engineers. Many of theassignments focus on the relevance of science and math to the challenging and creative work ofengineering.This paper explains a sequence of communications assignments that encourage critical thinkingand reflection about the intellectual and practical dimensions of engineering. The first group ofassignments integrates practice in Internet searching, listening, note taking, responsive writing,reading and academic writing as

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Sharon A. Driscoll; Carolyne E. Garcia

been developed since6,7.Indeed, the Learning Style Assessment Profile kit8 contains 24 independent scales that “diagnosea student’s cognitive style, as well as perceptual, affective, and environmental styles.”These instruments vary widely in their complexity, ease of administration, and the quality ofinformation the results provide, both for teachers and students. Additionally, these instrumentspurport to measure different dimensions9, ranging from Harb’s10 feeling/watching/thinking/ Page 5.504.1doing to Felder and Silverman’s6 sensory-intuitive/visual-auditory/inductive-deductive/active-reflective/sequential-global.This has enormous implications

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

John Duffy; Edmund Tsang; Susan M. Lord

joining of both academic coursework and community service with key featuresincluding reciprocity, reflection, and community-expressed needs. Previous studies have shownpositive effects of service-learning on a wide variety of cognitive and affective measures, manyof which match the criteria of ABET (for example, those dealing with interdisciplinary teams,ethical responsibility, impact of engineering in a global and societal context, and effectivecommunication). Examples of service-learning in engineering range from first-year designcourses coupled with local schools at University of South Alabama and at University of SanDiego to senior and graduate courses at University of Massachusetts Lowell coupled with a localHabitat for Humanity chapter and

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Rose M. Marra; Thomas Litzinger

skills. His discussion and insights were quite consistent with thecurrent literature on self-directed learning that identifies these same factors. For example,Garrison includes these very same factors, albeit at a more detailed level, in her model for self-directed learning [7].Candy in his extensive review of self-directed learning summarizes the characteristics of theself-directed learner from many sources [8]. These characteristics fall into two sets, personalattributes and skills, that quite clearly correspond to Flammer’s “will do” and can do.” Candy’slists are: “Will do” Attributes: curious/motivated, methodical/disciplined, logical/analytical, reflective/self-aware, flexible, interdependent/interpersonally competent

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Peter J. Graybash

dilemmas are non-existent and that the means-end principle and utilitarian principle willdominate ethical considerations. Second, the Bounded Rationality model tends to be less idealistic, and to consider thelimitations of day-to-day decision-making. It reflects individual tendencies to conduct limitedsearches for alternatives, to make choices under situations of inadequate information or control,and to (satisfice) select the less than best solution. Satisficing is the practice of selecting anacceptable goal, which might be easier to identify, less controversial, and otherwise safer thanthe best possible solution, very often, the manager's view of being reasonable to achieve. Thebounded rationality process reflects the human tendencies to 1

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Asif M. Shakur; Ali Eydgahi; Abhijit Nagchaudhuri

to appreciatecomplexity; to be capable of working in a variety of interpersonal and organizational settings; tobe able to act reflectively.Engineering is a profession in which knowledge of mathematical and natural sciences acquiredby study, experience and practice is prudently applied to develop ways to utilize optimallymaterials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind and improving quality of life. "Service-Learning" is a combination of academic instruction with service that addresses real communityneeds. It uses reflection and critical thinking to provide an emphasis on personal growth andcivic responsibility. Humanities and Social Sciences curricula emphasize more on "soft skills"and "social service" and as such have naturally

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas E. Hulbert; Robert B. Angus

recommendation to the corporation.)Revisions for Second OfferingThe first, most frequently received, evaluation comment recommended that the coursefocus more upon the labs. Therefore, the second offering was changed to 50% lecture;50% lab. This was very acceptable to the second round of participants.The course content was revised to reflect both the input of the previously participantsand a number of personnel from the Engineering Council. Also, the authors noted thatparticipants seemed confused and frustrated by the separate set of overhead graphs thattracked the course topical content. Therefore, the authors merged the overhead slideswith the course content, including the precise reference to pages within each of thesupplied texts. This proved to be

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Sanjiv B. Gokhale; Michael O'Dea

spends on the projecthe or she is exposed to various facets of construction. The specific learning objectives in thiscourse targeted by service activities were: 4 4 Achieving “breadth” of knowledge in the field of construction, 4 Developing skills to understand, accept, and relate to people of different background, and Ability to think rationally, form informed opinions, and comprehend new ideas.A particularly important aspect of any service learning course is the opportunity given to eachstudent to “reflect” and thereby gain a significant understanding of the course content. Studentsin the CNT 105 course were required to submit a paper based on their experience. The paperasks the student to describe the activities

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Bernard Hoop; Thomas E. Hulbert; Robert B. Angus; Eric W. Hansberry

for advanced upper-level coursework and research. We Page 5.303.2propose a methodology that focuses on preparing students for working in industry. While the 2authors familiarize students with Voland’s valued comprehensive approach, they utilize anindustrial version of the format when working with first-year students. This approach wasdesigned to reflect the type of work typically required by the students’ cooperative workemployers and in industry in general. Aptly referred to as the industrial format, our method is inkeeping with our emphasis on a relevant education. Current formats used in first

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Martha C. Wilson

,engineers need to be challenged in their liberal arts courses, especially since they take so few inthe engineering curriculum. Second, grade inflation may serve as a mechanism for students tochoose some liberal arts courses over others, where they are not particularly challenged.14 Page 5.474.5Third, evaluations can reflect how much a student likes the professor, not necessarily how muchthe student learned, reflecting the entertainment, not the educational value of a course.According to Peter Sacks, “a culture that allows students to determine what is good teachingdoes not lend itself to the kind of critical messy thinking that we need to be

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Rosalyn S. Hobson

diverse.At Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), service-learning has been incorporated into asection of the Introduction to Engineering course. Students are given an opportunity toparticipate in the service-learning (s-l) laboratory section. These students are teamed with localhigh school students. As a result of their participation in the course, the VCU students (a) gaina better understanding of the concepts presented in class through the process of having toteach/explain these concepts to a high school student, (b) learn about the concept of mentoring,(c) reflect on one’s own values and feelings about community service, (d) realize theimportance of community service and its incorporation in the field of engineering, and (e)achieve the goals

Collection

2000 Annual Conference

Authors

Nora Valeiras; Luis A. Godoy

papers by thefaculty. A significant increase in journal papers has been achieved in recent years, asshown by information obtained from the Science Citation Index, but the universityadministration expects to improve the present situation 9. Page 5.59.1Almost all assistant professors in the Engineering School at UPR-M obtained a Ph.D. inthe US, so that they have already carried out research leading to an original contributionto their field. However, this is not reflected in the number of publications that theyproduce during their tenure-track period. Let us consider how a young researcher inengineering is trained. In a typical situation, the graduate