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Peer-led Team Learning Bridges the Learning Gap in a First-Year Engineering Technology Course

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Conference

2018 ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Spring Conference

Location

Washington, District of Columbia

Publication Date

April 6, 2018

Start Date

April 6, 2018

End Date

April 7, 2018

Page Count

6

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29471

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29471

Download Count

560

Paper Authors

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Chen Xu New York City College of Technology Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-7590-4109

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Dr. Chen Xu is an Assistant Professor at Computer Engineering Technology department in New York City College of Technology. Her research interests are Engineering Education and Biomedical Optics.

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Ohbong Kwon New York City College of Technology

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Ohbong Kwon is an Assistant Professor in the department of Computer Engineering Technology Department at New York City College of Technology of City University of New York. He received his B.S. and M.S. in the department of Electrical Engineering from Hanyang University in Korea and his M.S. and Ph.D. in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida. His area of research includes digital signal processing, digital design and control systems.

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Juanita But New York City College of Technology

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Juanita But is Associate Professor of English at New York City College of technology, where she is the developmental reading coordinator. She is the Principal Investigator of READ (Reading Effectively Across the Disciplines), a program that was established in 2013 to improve student learning and disciplinary literacy across the curriculum. Her research and publications focus on reading pedagogy and multicultural literature.

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Benito Mendoza City University of New York Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-7074-9645

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Benito Mendoza is an Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering at the New York City College of Technology (CITY TECH). Before he joined CITY TECH, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Engineer at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. His areas of interest include Multi-Agent Systems, Bio-Inspired Systems, Context and Situation Awareness, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Artificial Intelligence in Education and Intelligent Tutoring Systems. He holds a PhD. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of South Carolina and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Veracruz, Mexico.

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Janet Liou-Mark New York City College of Technology, CUNY

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Dr. Janet Liou-Mark is a Professor of Mathematics and the Director of the Honors Scholars Program at New York City College of Technology. She is also a Co-Principle Investigator on three National Science Foundation (NSF) grants: Math Science Partnership (MSP) grant, Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) grant, and Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE): Pathways into Geoscience grant and a Co- Principle Investigator on a Department of Education Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program (MSEIP) grant. Dr. Liou-Mark has organized several STEM-related conferences and national conference sessions on diversifying the STEM workforce. She continues to speak at conferences and conduct workshops on best practices for underrepresented minorities in STEM. Dr. Liou-Mark is selected as the 2017-2018 Scholar on Campus. She was awarded the 2017 Best of New York Award for her contributions to City Tech. Her research interest in the implementation of the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) instructional model in mathematics has won her the 2011 CUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mathematics Instruction and the Mathematical Association of America Metro New York Section 2014 Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics. She is the director of the Peer-Led Team Learning Leadership Program at City Tech, and she has trained over 175 underrepresented minority students majoring in a STEM discipline to be effective Peer Leaders. Moreover, Dr. Liou-Mark has personally mentored over 200 STEM students where a third are continuing or obtaining advanced STEM degrees. She organizes and speaks at women conferences in Malawi, Africa, and she is also building libraries for the schools and communities in the Malawian villages.

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Robert Ostrom

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Robert Ostrom is an assistant professor in the Department of English at New York City College of Technology, CUNY and adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts.

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Abstract

Electrical Circuits (EMT 1150) is a first-year engineering gateway course for Electromechanical Engineering Technology (EMT) associate degree students. It is a five-credit course with a combined lecture and laboratory components. Topics in the lecture portion introduces the physical basis and mathematical models of electrical components and circuits. The laboratory sessions of the course are performed on a breadboard using the digital multi-meter, oscilloscope, and function generator. In the past ten consecutive semesters, the average enrollment for EMT1150 was approximately 144 students per semester with an average of 73% passing with a D or better and 64% passing with a C or better. EMT 1150 has always been identified as one of the most challenging courses in the major. From the instructors’ perspective, the reason for the high failure rates is due to first-year students having to learn the language of engineering in a very short time; simultaneously, they need to develop good critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In this paper, the preliminary results of a new pedagogical approach that incorporates Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) and discipline-specific literacy strategies to improve student learning will be presented. The proposed approach consists in a restructure of the course material and the introduction of recitation sessions integrated with the PLTL strategies. The new course design was piloted in a semester and the results were compared with other sections using a uniform final exam at the end of the semester. On average, the piloted PLTL sections performed approximately 15% higher than the non-PLTL sections.

Xu, C., & Kwon, O., & But, J., & Mendoza, B., & Liou-Mark, J., & Ostrom, R. (2018, April), Peer-led Team Learning Bridges the Learning Gap in a First-Year Engineering Technology Course Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Spring Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--29471

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