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Pedagogical Risk Taking: Is It Worth It?

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

ET Pedagogy I

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--33165

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/33165

Download Count

720

Paper Authors

biography

Mohammad Moin Uddin P.E. East Tennessee State University

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Dr. Mohammad Moin Uddin is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering, Engineering Technology, and Surveying at East Tennessee State University. He holds a joint appointment as an Associate Professor of Engineering and Engineering Technology and as a Graduate Faculty member of the Graduate Studies. Dr. Uddin is active in research and scholarship. He has been awarded grants from National Science Foundation, Tennessee Department of Transportation, DENSO and ASEE (ETD mini-grants) and several other organizations for a total of more than $2 million. His current research interest focuses on rural community engagement for transportation projects, road user cost, sustainable design and construction for knowledge based decision making, and engineering technology education. He also contributed to data analysis methods and cost effective practices of highway construction quality assurance program.Dr. Uddin is a proponent of project based learning and developed innovative teaching strategies to engage his students in solving a real-world problems and prepare them with skills and knowledge that industry requires. Dr. Uddin is a member of ASEE, ASCE, TRB and CRC. Dr. Uddin is active with ASEE engineering technology division and served as ETD program chair for CIEC in 2017 and 2018. Dr. Uddin received outstanding researcher award, outstanding service award and sustainability leadership award from his college.

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biography

Peter D. Rogers Georgia Southern University

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Dr. Rogers is an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction at Georgia Southern University. Prior to joining the University, he worked at the Institute for Water Resources and spent several years working throughout Latin America on various WASH related projects. His other interests include water and sanitation systems, hydraulics, water resources, and design build delivery systems.

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Christopher David Leblanc University of New Hampshire

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Christopher D. LeBlanc is currently the Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor for the Engineering Technology program at the University of New Hampshire Manchester campus. Prior to his faculty appointment he spent 16 years at International Business Machines (IBM) as an Analog Mixed Signal design engineer.

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biography

Keith V. Johnson East Tennessee State University

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Dr. Johnson is chair of the Department of Engineering, Engineering Technology and Surveying at East Tennessee State University. He has been active with the American Society of Engineering Education for over 20 years. During that time, he have served in several capacities, including, but not limited to program chair, author, reviewer, committee member and chair of the Engineering Technology Division. During his tenure at ETSU, he has authored several papers, taught numerous courses, and presented at professional meetings.

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Abstract

Traditional pedagogical techniques are teacher-centered, frequently entail lengthy lecture sessions or one-way presentations, and involve limited student engagement and participation. Research shows diminishing results of such pedagogical techniques in students’ learning especially for millennials. As technological, economic, and cultural forces have fundamentally altered the very foundation of traditional educational models, educators try to figure out how to best meet the needs of students in a personalized, meaningful and timely way. As are result, several new innovative teaching methods have been developed. These methods of content delivery deviate from the traditional model of lecturing and passive learning towards a greater focus on active learning, where greater student interaction is encouraged, the boundaries of authority less defined, and a focus on learning over grades is emphasized. However, for an instructor, identifying new and engaging ways of teaching and course reorganization can be a time consuming and research intensive process. Sometimes, it may also require significant technology investment. Despite the instructor’s ardent effort, there is a risk of failure since not all pedagogical techniques work for all courses. However, when executed properly, these innovative techniques keep students engaged and motivated and significantly improve students’ learning. In this paper, we will refer such innovative teaching techniques as pedagogical risk taking techniques. The paper describes pedagogical risk taking activities of four instructors from three different institutions. It gives a critical look at the effort required to create such teaching methods and the results in terms of improvements in student learning and satisfaction. Findings show that taking pedagogical risk is an important pedagogical tool that instructors should have to engage and improve students’ learning.

Uddin, M. M., & Rogers, P. D., & Leblanc, C. D., & Johnson, K. V. (2019, June), Pedagogical Risk Taking: Is It Worth It? Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33165

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