Student Self-Reported Knowledge Gains from Reflection Implementation in Two Biological and Agricultural Engineering Courses

Christopher Isaac Camacho; Toluwalase Opanuga; Heidi A. Diefes-Dux

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: Biological and Agricultural Engineering Division (BAE) Technical Session
Tagged Division: Biological and Agricultural Engineering Division (BAE)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 16
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/57695

Paper Authors

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Christopher Isaac Camacho University of Texas at El Paso

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Christopher Camacho is an undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Engineering Innovation and Leadership with a concentration in Electrical Engineering at The University of Texas at El Paso. He serves as a teaching assistant and student researcher at the Center for Research in Engineering and Technology Education (CREaTE). In the summer of 2024, he participated in an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His research interests include engineering identity, reflective learning, and innovative teaching practices.

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Toluwalase Opanuga University of Nebraska - Lincoln

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Toluwalase Opanuga is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education Research at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and graduate research assistant at the Department of Biological Systems Engineering. She completed her M.S in Industrial Engineering at Eastern Mediterranean University in Turkey and her B.S in Electrical Engineering at University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Her research interest include curriculum and assessment, and faculty development.

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Heidi A. Diefes-Dux University of Nebraska - Lincoln orcid.org/0000-0003-3635-1825

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Heidi A. Diefes-Dux is a Professor in Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL). She received her B.S. and M.S. in Food Science from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Food Process Engineering from the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. She was an inaugural faculty member of the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her current role in the College of Engineering at UNL is to lead the disciplinary-based education research initiative, growing the research enterprise and the engineering education research graduate program. Her research focuses on the development, implementation, and assessment of modeling and design activities with authentic engineering contexts; the design and implementation of learning objective-based grading for transparent and fair assessment; and the integration of reflection to develop self-directed learners.

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Abstract

ABET 7 emphasizes the importance of developing engineering students’ ability to acquire and apply knowledge through effective learning strategies. Reflection is one way to encourage students to evaluate their learning strategies, identify knowledge gaps, and plan ways to achieve their learning objectives. In essence, reflection can facilitate students’ deep thinking about their learning. That said, reflection has been found to be an underused engineering classroom method for developing students’ metacognitive skills and supporting their growth as self-directed learners. The under-utilization of reflection is often due to educators’ lack of familiarity with reflection and comfort with non-technical instruction. For educators who are starting to bring reflection into their classroom, tools are necessary to understand and monitor the impact on students. Such tools can inform educators about what students are taking away from reflection implementation (intended or not) and guide educators to make focused instructional adjustments. This study focuses on the first implementation of reflection in two Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) courses and the use of an instrument to capture students' self-reported knowledge gains.

The first purpose of this study was to gather validity evidence for the Reflective Knowledge Gains Instrument (RKGI, Mejia & Turns, 2021) which is intended to assess the impact of reflection practices on four factors: engineering students’ engineering identity, their course content understanding, their social impact understanding, and their personal growth. The second purpose was to demonstrate the utility of this instrument in two undergraduate BAE courses with different implementations of reflection.

The RKGI was administered in multiple engineering undergraduate courses in which reflection was implemented in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted using 266 RKGI responses to identify the number of latent factors represented by the data and to assess the data fit to the proposed factor structure. Two BAE use cases were developed with data from 47 first-year students enrolled in a course focused on using computer tools to solve biological engineering problems and 41 second-year students enrolled in a biological material properties laboratory course.

Although the factor analyses revealed four factors that were different from the originally proposed RKGI factors, there was strong support for a new four-factor model with good internal consistency and substantial loadings. The new factors were: engineering self, course understanding and work, areas for growth, and personal interest. The use cases demonstrated differences in the impact each BAE course had on students’ knowledge gains that were consistent with the reflection implementation in each course and pointed to improvement needs.

The RKGI is a valuable tool that can guide improvement in reflection instruction and implementation. The ways in which BAE educators can use the RKGI to improve instruction will be discussed.

Citation
Format

Camacho, C. I., & Opanuga, T., & Diefes-Dux, H. A. (2025, June), Student Self-Reported Knowledge Gains from Reflection Implementation in Two Biological and Agricultural Engineering Courses Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/57695

TY - CPAPER
AB - ABET 7 emphasizes the importance of developing engineering students’ ability to acquire and apply knowledge through effective learning strategies. Reflection is one way to encourage students to evaluate their learning strategies, identify knowledge gaps, and plan ways to achieve their learning objectives. In essence, reflection can facilitate students’ deep thinking about their learning. That said, reflection has been found to be an underused engineering classroom method for developing students’ metacognitive skills and supporting their growth as self-directed learners. The under-utilization of reflection is often due to educators’ lack of familiarity with reflection and comfort with non-technical instruction. For educators who are starting to bring reflection into their classroom, tools are necessary to understand and monitor the impact on students. Such tools can inform educators about what students are taking away from reflection implementation (intended or not) and guide educators to make focused instructional adjustments. This study focuses on the first implementation of reflection in two Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) courses and the use of an instrument to capture students&#39; self-reported knowledge gains.

The first purpose of this study was to gather validity evidence for the Reflective Knowledge Gains Instrument (RKGI, Mejia &amp;amp; Turns, 2021) which is intended to assess the impact of reflection practices on four factors: engineering students’ engineering identity, their course content understanding, their social impact understanding, and their personal growth. The second purpose was to demonstrate the utility of this instrument in two undergraduate BAE courses with different implementations of reflection.

The RKGI was administered in multiple engineering undergraduate courses in which reflection was implemented in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted using 266 RKGI responses to identify the number of latent factors represented by the data and to assess the data fit to the proposed factor structure. Two BAE use cases were developed with data from 47 first-year students enrolled in a course focused on using computer tools to solve biological engineering problems and 41 second-year students enrolled in a biological material properties laboratory course.

Although the factor analyses revealed four factors that were different from the originally proposed RKGI factors, there was strong support for a new four-factor model with good internal consistency and substantial loadings. The new factors were: engineering self, course understanding and work, areas for growth, and personal interest. The use cases demonstrated differences in the impact each BAE course had on students’ knowledge gains that were consistent with the reflection implementation in each course and pointed to improvement needs.

The RKGI is a valuable tool that can guide improvement in reflection instruction and implementation. The ways in which BAE educators can use the RKGI to improve instruction will be discussed.
AU - Christopher Isaac Camacho
AU - Toluwalase Opanuga
AU - Heidi A. Diefes-Dux
CY - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DA - 2025/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Student Self-Reported Knowledge Gains from Reflection Implementation in Two Biological and Agricultural Engineering Courses
UR - https://peer.asee.org/57695
ER -