Conference proceeding
Work in Progress: Fostering Cognitive Engagement with Hands-on Learning Pedagogy
Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers
American Society for Engineering Education Conference, 126 (Tampa, Florida)
06/15/2019
Abstract
Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris (2004) define cognitive engagement as the effort students invest in understanding what they are learning. Indeed, cognitive engagement is critical for effective teaching and learning in engineering. Although there is research evidence showing that students learn better with hands-on approaches than traditional lectures, little is known about student differential levels of cognitive engagement that underlie such improved learning. As part of a large program of federally-funded research, our research team has developed light-weight, portable, ultra-Low-Cost Desktop Learning Modules (LC-DLMs) that enable students to employ systems experientially to illustrate the physics that underlie transfer processes and provide students with visual cues to help develop robust understanding of the fundamentals of momentum, heat and mass transfer. The purpose of this work-in-progress is to report on an ongoing project that used Chi and Wylie (2014)’s Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive (ICAP) framework (I > C > A > P) to survey the degree to which LC-DLMs foster cognitive engagement as students learn about a venturi meter in a fluid mechanics and heat transfer course. Sixty-seven (67) participants used LC-DLMs to learn venturi concepts in an engineering course. Overall, preliminary results show that the majority of the participants reported that LC-DLMs helped foster active, constructive, and interactive forms of engagement far more than lectures did. For example, all but two of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that the use of LC-DLMs helped promote interactive forms of engagement such as discussion with peers, asking and answering questions and clarifying understanding with peers through robust discussions. Some open-ended items solicited information about the physical features of the LC-DLMs that were helpful in learning venturi concepts and ways the LC-DLMs hindered or enhanced their engagement and learning. Most of the participants reported that the visual cues afforded by LC-DLMs made the venturi concepts more relatable and helped them develop conceptual understanding better than if they had only been taught using lectures.
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Details
- Title
- Work in Progress: Fostering Cognitive Engagement with Hands-on Learning Pedagogy
- Creators
- Olusola Olalekan AdesopeNegar Beheshti PourBernard J. Van WieDavid B. Thiessen
- Publication Details
- Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers
- Conference
- American Society for Engineering Education Conference, 126 (Tampa, Florida)
- Academic Unit
- Education, College of
- Publisher
- American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE
- Identifiers
- 99900601053401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding