WIP: Implementing Mini-Projects to Build Community and Improve Student Engagement

Leon Liebenberg; Taylor Tucker

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Energy Conversion and Conservation Technical Session 2: Enhancing Energy-Related Education with Student Design Projects
Page Count: 22
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41380
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41380
Download Count: 504

Paper Authors

biography

Leon Liebenberg University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Leon is a Teaching Associate Professor in mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also a Fellow of the UIUC's Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. In the Grainger College of Engineering, Leon leads the ENGagement In eNgineering Education (ENGINE) instructional innovation team, where he and his multidisciplinary colleagues are investigating ways to promote deep learning. Before coming to UIUC, he was a professor of mechanical engineering at two South African universities and a higher education consultant in Switzerland. For the past 25 years, Leon has approached teaching as a craft with his conscious desire for self-expression and by crafting experiences to excite learning. He holds doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Johannesburg, a master’s degree from Imperial College London, and a diploma in advanced mechanical engineering from the University of London.

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Taylor Tucker University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Abstract

At the core of successful teaching and learning lies a change in student attitude. A great learning experience should elicit enthusiasm and help students become more motivated and self-directed. As students often report low motivation due to a lack of self-regulation skills or insufficient engagement with their peers, it follows that social and emotional engagement are necessary complements to cognitive engagement. This study explores a whole-student pedagogical strategy that melds cognitive and emotional learning in a sophomore level face-to-face thermodynamics class. Our whole-student approach uses a series of four self-directed mini-projects (i.e., complex design modules divided into smaller segments) to better engage students in creatively solving real-world problems. Based on their learning preference questionnaires, students were placed in diverse teams of three to four with the intention of generating a sense of community and promoting creative thinking. Each mini-project was comprised of both open-ended and well-defined non-trivial analytical questions that addressed contemporary energy-related challenges. Teams were also expected to reflect on energy options for the future. To help promote curiosity and critical evaluation, teams peer-reviewed one another’s mini-projects. This study uses data from participant questionnaires (n = 77) to analyze the efficacy of using mini-projects in a face-to-face learning environment. The questionnaires, which targeted cognitive and emotional engagement constructs pertaining to the mini-projects, were evaluated using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The results suggest that mini-projects can help foster self-directed learning and enhance self-awareness by providing students with valuable insight toward their own learning styles. Students’ development of self-awareness during this process can in turn help them regulate, change, and improve their learning behavior as well as develop critical thinking skills by conceptualizing and articulating their thinking in a disciplinary context. Findings from this work may contribute to the development of teaching strategies that can enhance and facilitate improved student engagement. Implementing a series of self-directed mini-projects can also improve self-regulation skills and help generate a sense of community.

Citation
Format

Liebenberg, L., & Tucker, T. (2022, August), WIP: Implementing Mini-Projects to Build Community and Improve Student Engagement Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41380

TY - CPAPER
AB - At the core of successful teaching and learning lies a change in student attitude. A great learning experience should elicit enthusiasm and help students become more motivated and self-directed. As students often report low motivation due to a lack of self-regulation skills or insufficient engagement with their peers, it follows that social and emotional engagement are necessary complements to cognitive engagement.
This study explores a whole-student pedagogical strategy that melds cognitive and emotional learning in a sophomore level face-to-face thermodynamics class. Our whole-student approach uses a series of four self-directed mini-projects (i.e., complex design modules divided into smaller segments) to better engage students in creatively solving real-world problems. Based on their learning preference questionnaires, students were placed in diverse teams of three to four with the intention of generating a sense of community and promoting creative thinking. Each mini-project was comprised of both open-ended and well-defined non-trivial analytical questions that addressed contemporary energy-related challenges. Teams were also expected to reflect on energy options for the future. To help promote curiosity and critical evaluation, teams peer-reviewed one another’s mini-projects.
This study uses data from participant questionnaires (n = 77) to analyze the efficacy of using mini-projects in a face-to-face learning environment. The questionnaires, which targeted cognitive and emotional engagement constructs pertaining to the mini-projects, were evaluated using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The results suggest that mini-projects can help foster self-directed learning and enhance self-awareness by providing students with valuable insight toward their own learning styles. Students’ development of self-awareness during this process can in turn help them regulate, change, and improve their learning behavior as well as develop critical thinking skills by conceptualizing and articulating their thinking in a disciplinary context. Findings from this work may contribute to the development of teaching strategies that can enhance and facilitate improved student engagement. Implementing a series of self-directed mini-projects can also improve self-regulation skills and help generate a sense of community.

AU - Leon Liebenberg
AU - Taylor Tucker
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - WIP: Implementing Mini-Projects to Build Community and Improve Student Engagement
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41380
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41380
ER -