I Think We Should Break Up...Class, That Is
- Conference
- Location
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Minneapolis, MN
- Publication Date
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August 23, 2022
- Start Date
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June 26, 2022
- End Date
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June 29, 2022
- Conference Session
- Page Count
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23
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--40646
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/40646
- Download Count
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257
Paper Authors
Matthew Swenty Virginia Military Institute
Dr. Swenty obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees in Civil Engineering from Missouri S&T and then worked as a bridge designer at the Missouri Department of Transportation. He returned to school to obtain his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech followed by re-search work at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center on concrete bridges. He is currently a professor of civil engineering and the Jackson-Hope Chair in Engineering at the Virginia Military Institute. He teaches engineering mechanics and structural engineering courses and enjoys working with his students on bridge related research projects and the ASCE student chapter.
Benjamin Dymond University of Minnesota Duluth
Camilla Saviz University of the Pacific
Camilla Saviz is Professor and Chair of the Civil Engineering Department at University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA where she has happily taught since 1999. She received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University, an M.B.A. from the New York Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis in the area of hydrodynamic and water quality modeling. She is a registered Professional Engineer (California), an Envision Sustainability Professional, was elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2017, and was honored to receive the Thomas A. Lenox ASCE ExCEEd Leadership Award in 2020. Her teaching, research, and professional interests include water resources engineering, sustainability, and engineering education.
David Saftner University of Minnesota Duluth
Dr. David Saftner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. He earned a BS from the United States Military Academy and an MS and PhD from the University of Michigan. Prior to pursuing a career in academics, Dr. Saftner spent five years as an engineer officer in the US Army and serving in Missouri, Colorado, Kuwait, and Iraq. His areas of research include beneficial reuse of waste soil material, geotechnical site investigation and characterization, and teaching and learning in engineering education. He currently serves as his Department's Head, an American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) Mentor, and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Civil Engineering Division Freshman Director.
Jeffrey Shafer University of the Pacific
Jeffrey Shafer is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of the Pacific. He received a B.S. in Computer Engineering and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dayton, and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Rice University. He joined Pacific in 2010.
Kacie D'Alessandro Virginia Military Institute
Kacie C. D’Alessandro received her B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering at Clemson University and her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech. She taught at Washington and Lee University for seven years before joining the faculty at Virginia Military Institute, where she is now a visiting assistant professor. Her research interests include ultra-high performance concrete, design of concrete structures, structural evaluations, and experiential learning. She teaches courses in structural engineering and engineering mechanics.
Tanya Kunberger Florida Gulf Coast University
Dr. Tanya Kunberger is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering and Construction Management in the U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University. Dr. Kunberger's educational research interests are in self-efficacy, persistence, and effective learning approaches in engineering and the development of an interest in STEM topics in K-12 students.
Christopher Shearer
Dr. Shearer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. His research investigates the chemical, physical, and mechanical properties and durability performance of infrastructure materials, with a focus on sustainable concrete materials technology. He also researches new strategies to improve STEM education.
Abstract
Class time, whether in a physical or virtual setting, is a valuable component of the learning process. However, time in class does not always equate to time on task. Class periods can vary in length from 50 minutes to 3 hours or more, but how much of that time are students paying full attention, thinking critically about the material, and engaging with course concepts? Additionally, how might these differing time periods equate to a difference in student engagement, and what can be done to ensure that class time is effective? One potentially effective tool is to provide class breaks at regular intervals. A number of different methods have been used in K-12 education, such as “brain breaks,” to exhaust excess energy, break up classes, and allow students to refocus while in an extended class period. In college classrooms, however, any type of break seems to be far less common, and the effectiveness of breaks and acceptance among engineering students has not been evaluated extensively.
The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of using class breaks as a pedagogical tool and determine how commonly breaks are deployed. Coauthors at five different universities included a variety of break types and lengths in different engineering courses. The courses varied from first year to graduate level and were offered in-person and hybrid during the Fall 2021 semester. Students were asked to complete a voluntary survey to determine whether breaks helped them stay engaged in the course and what manner of breaks they preferred. The results indicate that about 50% of students have never had a formal break in an engineering class until the one administering the survey, but about 80% of students surveyed said a break somewhat or greatly increased their ability to focus and learn. Only 6% percent reported a reduction in their ability to focus, and 4% reported a reduction in their ability to learn as a result of the break. Recommendations are provided on what types of breaks work in different classroom settings as judged by the faculty and students, the students’ perceived ability to focus in classes with breaks, and the students’ perception of learning when accompanied by a class break.
Swenty, M., & Dymond, B., & Saviz, C., & Saftner, D., & Shafer, J., & D'Alessandro, K., & Kunberger, T., & Shearer, C. (2022, August), I Think We Should Break Up...Class, That Is Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40646
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