address these questions, we interviewed 13 new engineering graduates within 1-2 years ofcompleting their bachelors degree, analyzing participant-produced critical work-relatedincident narratives against a framework of transformative learning [20]. As one of theprominent theories of adult learning, transformative learning describes learning as “theprocess of using prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of themeaning of one’s experience in order to guide future action” [20]. It offers a usefulframework for examining events that have been meaningful for the participants themselves[21] distinguishing between five different dimensions in these experiences: 1) meaningful events in actions, reflected in the behavior of the
].Collaborative, student-focused, learning environments are shown to greatly increase and deepena student's understanding of the topic. Discussion among the students while doing an activityengages higher level thinking resulting in better outcomes in the course.This collaborative learning environment is a new way of teaching for many instructors, includingPurdue faculty. The IMPACT program has four goals. Those goals are: • Refocus the campus culture on student-centered pedagogy and student success. • Increase student engagement, competence, and learning gains. • Focus course redesign on research-based pedagogies. • Reflect, assess, and share results to benefit future courses, students, and institutional culture.There are three
clear: students need access to information and encouragement to pursue thatinformation if they are to successfully detect and resolve discrepancies through adaptation anddecision-making.Points of ImprovementGame Assessment. We found that the weekly reports were helpful in familiarizing the gamemasters with teams’ decision-making processes, and would like to continue this form of serialassessment. However, the prompts for these weekly reports should be more specific, and shouldalign with the learning frameworks identified in our analysis. We propose that in each weeklyreport, teams should be asked to reflect on the following: (1) What discrepancies exist betweenexpected and actual results of the previous week, (2) what strategies led to the
on specific reading material and/or video content. The coursealso includes a field trip that provides opportunities for students to talk directly with membersfrom various stakeholder groups in the VA coalfields including state regulators, industrymembers and local citizens.3. SurveyAppendix A includes the survey instrument used in the first year of the study analyzed here. Itwas designed to measure students’ knowledge, abilities, and attitudes [15] related to CSR andcollect relevant background information to explore possible connections between those and thedemographic information, students’ motivations for pursuing engineering, their career desires,and their civic activities. The survey reflects feedback from an expert panel of
-five minutes and thelongest interview was fifty-eight minutes. We provided the participants with the interview questions severaldays in advance to allow them to reflect upon the questions.C. Data AnalysisThe interviews were audio-only, conducted via telephone, and recorded for later analysis. The audio datawere coded directly without transcription using qualitative analysis software (NVivo 11) with an initial codeset that had been developed from the research questions and the interview questions. The code set containedtwenty-two codes with four codes added as emergent codes during the coding process. One author(Fitzmorris) conducted the interviews and coded the interview data. Once the data were coded, all threeauthors listened to selected
ofpeople” [24], Brown et al. [32] outline the construct of discursive identity to investigate the waysin which individuals’ identities are developed through discourse. This perspective discussesidentity as enacted through language, social interactions, and interpretive processes: discursiveidentity “reflects an understanding that speakers select genres of discourse with the knowledge(tacit or implicit) that others will … interpret their discourse as a signal of their culturalmembership” [32]. Discursive identity aligns with the sociocultural view of identitydevelopment, in which an individual’s presentation of oneself to a community, and thecommunity’s recognition of the individual as a kind of person, is central to an identity. Thisperspective
activities (98 percent of 44 survey respondents), especially big equipment (over 80 percent).Students enjoyed the discovery experiments (more than 83 percent) but had mixed feedback ondealing with open-ended aspect of discovery experiments, with only half of students appreciatingthe open-ended structure. With respect to the open-ended design project, approximately 62 percentfelt comfortable with open-ended design.Shortly after 2010, in response to student feedback and instructor assessment of the courses, bothLab I and Lab II each became 2-credit hour courses to reflect the quantity and quality of workaccomplished. In the sixteen semesters over eight academic years following the full transition,various instructors have attempted to further improve
havesome kind of engineering analysis” and pressed them to explain why their project was “sogreat.” Her concern reflected the instructor’s comment, “What can you really uniquelycontribute as an engineer?” as she pressed, “Why is there a need for it?” The studentsexplained the potential for saving lives by having a way to detect symptoms of shock.Steve’s team struggled to define this as a design problem and resisted reframing theproblem. Instead, they treated the problem as well-structured and their task as finding theright answer, primarily adopting a performance orientation. Vignette 4: Feb 4Daniela: I just thought that something bothers me the fact that (.) yeah we're gonna put the sensor on the stomach (.) right? During surgery
seek to evaluate integrative thinking, we choose to avoid the style ofpoint-allocation rubrics, as point awards necessarily skew towards simple report features thatmay fail to reflect the students’ understanding of their work.To reflect our emphasis on higher-level thinking we have chosen to develop mastery-orientedrubrics, where report sections are evaluated on a continuum from Novice to Mastery (or 1 to 5).This enables us to rank reports according to the students’ ability to define critical points for eachsection of a report. Our generic rubric for a laboratory report is shown in Table 1. Table 1. Default rubric for assessing student understanding in laboratory reports Headed Section Important Statement(s
various engineering fundamentals and concepts through hands-on, activelearning, the 18-day collaborative research phase focused on project-based learning. By modelingand reflecting an authentic research setting, this approach engaged teachers in significant self-directed learning and collaboration with fellow researchers. As evidenced from [36], active,collaborative, and problem-based learning are found to improve student engagement, facilitatelonger retention of information, and positively influence learner’s attitudes and study habits.On three days during the six-week PD, teachers participated in a lesson plan developmentworkshop conducted by teachers and researchers of a robotics PD program, also being conductedat NYU Tandon, to explore the 3D
each team as well as expert involvement.Table 1Additional details on the composition of each team, as well as relevant information on the SIL experts. Data Collection and Analysis During the IDC, the first author assumed the role of a non-participant observer and collected all the data used in this study. Following an ethnographic approach, he did not engage in any of the activities in which the students participated throughout the IDC and interacted with them only when observation alone did not provide data on instances he believed to be relevant to answering the overarching research question (e.g., when participants worked quietly, independently, or engaged in self-reflection). Main sources of data consisted of extensive field notes, videos
asking the participants about their “story” (for example, “How did you get intoengineering?”), followed by reflecting on their engineering identity, sense of belongingness inengineering for themselves and for other students, and their present and future activities and plans in CE.Interviews were conducted by two members of the research team and were approximately one hour long.Qualitative Data AnalysisInterviews were professionally transcribed, and transcripts were reviewed by the interviewers to correcterrors. Initial qualitative analysis was conducted using descriptive coding (Miles and Huberman, 1994);responses to questions about belongingness were coded with the intention of capturing how participantsdescribed their sense of belongingness in
item is graded as correct or incorrect with nopartial credit given. The TAs digitally fill out the rubric for each student and create a PDF of thecompleted rubric and return it to the students via the course management system gradebook. Keyattributes of this system of grading are 1) the grader can quickly fill out the rubric without havingto reflect on the requirements of the assignment, 2) subjectivity is limited by having standardgrading items to evaluate, 3) feedback is returned to the student electronically, making it moreaccessible and ensuring the feedback cannot be lost, and 4) an electronic record of errors iscollected for assessment purposes. The following questions still lingered: Do the graderscorrectly fill out the rubrics? Do all
qualitative data explicitly asked about whichfactors strongly influence their career choice. Immediate family and friends came in the top 10strongest factors, with immediate family coming in at number 2.This aligns with the findings of Yun et al. who concluded that parents are the front line withregards to the education of their children, and are important agents in the development andeducational achievement of their child in a formal setting [17].ConclusionsThere were a variety of very influential factors found in the study that impact male and femalestudents’ desire to pursue a career in STEM. The most influential factor found in the qualitativedata for both male and female students was Career Plans. This was also reflected in thequantitative data
that was the first thing that tipped me off because I love to fix things [andthought] You know what? We can do something better.LimitationsAll five researchers in this study are women and none of us served in the military. Qualitativeresearch, by its nature, is designed to explore in depth the experiences of a relatively few people.Therefore, the opinions and experiences of these students may not reflect those of all Marinesand sailors. In addition, we were limited to studying only publicly available recruiting documentsand more current or non-public ones may reflect different priorities.Discussion and ConclusionThe reasons that people join the military and choose to major in engineering are multi-facetedand interwoven into their life
si de medirlas o de desarrollarlas… Y estaba el asunto de la rúbrica,,, era un poco compleja. No sé cómo se la dieron a entender a los alumnos. [MP5]Professor 4 ads, “Above all, teamwork, there was a particular evaluation for teamwork.” “Ysobre todo el trabajo en equipo, porque había una evaluación en particular de trabajo enequipo. [MP4]In this previous section, we described the challenges that professors experienced while teachingtheoretical contents through PBL. Professors reflect on their previous practice and compare theresults with the new learning model. They cited uncertainty about how to develop students’ softskills while fostering rigorous learning of Physics. In the next session, we present how the newmethodology allowed
forlongitudinal studies, or for educators who want to enact timely interventions to support currentstudents.In addition to studying engagement because it provides a window into the present academicsituation for students, this study also chooses engagement metrics which are all motivational innature, as opposed to engagement variables commonly used in other studies such as time on taskand time spent in specific learning activities [30]. Motivational measures are important becausethey reflect not only how engaged a student is in the present, but also how likely they are toremain engaged and persist with their studies in the future. Research has shown that beingintrinsically or self-motivated predicts a student’s desire to learn and achieve better than
that may be overlooked bynovices. The content knowledge of experts is organized in ways reflecting a deeper underlyingunderstanding of the content, allowing them to flexibly retrieve and apply key aspects of it whilesolving problems. By providing students with experiential learning opportunities, avenues forworking with scaled-down versions of technical problems, they too can begin buildingcontextual understanding, allowing them to notice subtle difference between similar situations.This will allow students to learn the information more effectively and to retain it longer,facilitating better transfer of knowledge and skills from the classroom to the workplace. In [2]emphasis is placed on the importance for learners to organize key ideas into
are of greatimportance, while others may only need to be briefly mentioned in the lecture. To reflect thisrelative importance in the skeleton notes the instructor should rank each topic in the list; in effectcreating a hierarchy of importance. The next step is to reorder the list of topics as they wouldappear chronologically in a lecture; the topics should build on one-another in a logical fashion tocreate a progression of thought that serves to inform the student and demonstrate how theconcepts relate to one another. This reordering can take many forms, and should be written in away that encourages the instructor to think about how the topics are related. Some instructorsmay find that a bulleted list serves this purpose best, while others
learners surpasses unsupported instruction with regards to the effective transfer ofknowledge.6 Collaborative work largely reflects the actual environment in engineering-intensiveorganizations that use interdisciplinary teams to solve engineering problems. By carefullyconstructing guidance to support the team in the form of tools and guided activities, we canfacilitate and evaluate interactions and then further determine design improvements to ensurethat effective collaboration takes place. The structure and goals of the collaboration tool andinstructional scaffolds aligns with evidence-based research and the foundational knowledge ofteam processes and team effectiveness.14-16 The collaboration tool was built using Google Appsthat are freely
order to optimize the classification effort while attempting toinform us of feedback activity nature and level. For example, we recognize the importance ofneed analysis and the emphasis that experts place on this stage verses novices, and so theimportant coding classifications of problem identification, representation and communication areprominent in our model. Additionally, the verification classification is available at each stage, asthis reflects best design practice. Figure 1. A generalized engineering design process model with coding classifications Initiating Planning
engineering can have on human lives, as is the focus ofmany recruitment campaigns and messages within undergraduate engineering programs as partof diversity campaigns. Indeed, the fact that the National Science Foundation requires thegraduate students to meet the same Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts criteria required bygrant awardees signifies commitment to requiring engineers, future academicians, andresearchers to carefully consider the merits and impacts of their work. This is potentially avaluable form of reflective practice (essential for developing expertise)35, and contributes to thedefinition of the essence of engineering and what it means to be an engineer, although facultydefinitions of engineering largely still differ from the
offers a venue for increasing awareness,demonstrating relevance, building confidence, and proving satisfaction for faculty audiences.Furthermore, the influence of peers can play an important role in promoting change in theattitudes of faculty audiences 19, 20, 21, 22. The competition acting as a medium for triggering acontagion effect, or social spillover effect, can lead faculty audiences to imitate the adoptionbehaviors of their peer group of participants.Finalist ProjectsResults from the 2013 competition have demonstrated the potential of the approach in promotinginnovation in engineering education 18. In 2014, there was a variety of projects reflecting thevision of contributing faculty members in relation to advancing education through
needs. Firstly,the benefit is for the community that is served by students, and secondly, students areencouraged to connect and reflect how their education connects to their professional career.Through this experience students feel better about their actions and understand the need andtherefore the impact engineers have on a community. This encourages them to learn more abouttheir chosen profession, and feel more confident about their achievements.Also, students have a chance to practice and apply what they learn in class in a real project wherethey are exposed to the results of their design. The positive side of the service learning is in theend, the students are giving back to the communities and society the knowledge they gained inthe
1 2 Full Professor 11Other quantitative and qualitative data was gathered for this study through a post-class survey. Thesurvey was designed to capture student’s attitudes concerning the use of Active Learning in theMC/MSD class and also to assess the overall student experience. To answer the final question,Instructor B was asked to reflect on his experience of using Active Learning and his plans forfuture implementation.Typical ClassFor the MC/MSD class described here, the student receives four credit units. They meet in 50-minute lecture sections on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; and a three-hour laboratory sectionon either Tuesday or Thursday of each week. The students in the laboratory sections are
participate in anoutreach survey than those not. We could well have a disproportionate data set. But outreach certainly“feels” like a nearly pervasive activity among universities, and this magnitude of extrapolation is likelyto be generally valid.Three programs reported about 65,000 of the 147,000-plus student total, each with about 20,000participants. The median figure for student programs was 200. The spiky-ness of participation numberspoints up something fundamental about the nature of the field. Outreach is a highly varied undertaking.Different schools have different goals, capabilities, and opportunities. Programs come in all shapes andalso all sizes.The community member total does reflect one unusually large program total that might bear
students’ entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, it is not surprising that the Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Theoryare commonly used. Although all of the papers in this review placed an emphasis on gender within theirstudies, there appeared to be little consensus regarding which theoretical frameworks to use thatpertain to gender. Three of the 24 papers (12.5%) used Eagly’s Social Role Theory33, whichdescribes how beliefs concerning the different sexes are reflective of the sexual division of laborand gender hierarchy within society. Other theories pertaining to gender that were used to framestudies included Gender Schema Theory34, Liberal Feminism Theory35, Gender Role Theory36,and Sex Role
activitiesmust be structured to meet the appropriate knowledge levels and learning goals. Students mustbe clearly informed in their role as researchers or contributors to research. As part of this role,they should be given some level of autonomy, such as the ability to tweak the experiment orgiven access to equipment or tools for their creative projects. Despite the level of autonomy thatstudents thrive on, it is important that faculty realize students may be slow to question ahypothesis when engaging in experiments. They thus require mentoring and reflection withregards to research methods. Faculty must also invest in these activities by purchasing orproviding access to equipment, or consulting with students regularly. Additionally, many ofthese
is that the individual feels isolated and is able to identify potential sources of those feelings.• Mysterious Pathways: covers feelings of being stalled, stuck, or unable to move forward in a career. Originally classified as a result of not knowing the pathways to promotion or advancement, this category was expanded slightly to also reflect those career pathways that are stagnant or stalled for both men and women.• Diving Catch: refers to a tendency of some workplaces to put those who are risk averse at a disadvantage. In a diving catch work environment, the individual who feels less comfortable with risk feels more at a disadvantage with regard to advancement or performance because he or she is penalized by not