Engaging Freshman Engineers Using the Paul-Elder Model of Critical Thinking
Conclusions and Future Directions
Download 407.01 Kb. Pdf ko'rish
|
ASEE-2012-FirstYear-final paper
6. Conclusions and Future Directions
To summarize, based on the analysis of student responses to these exercises and the survey information, the authors found three primary conclusions: 1) it is imperative that students get informative feedback as quickly as possible, 2) the “Analyze the Discipline” exercises were useful for reinforcing critical thinking and the P-E framework, and 3) the “Analyze the Discipline” exercises were effective for improving engagement of students during department presentations. Additionally, from review of our analysis of these exercises, there is also evidence that students gained an understanding and appreciation of all seven engineering disciplines offered at this university, as opposed to listening closely only to their department of interest. Of those selected students and also those from the larger sample, most could identify the purpose, concepts, and question at issue elements for all seven disciplines which demonstrates basic understanding of the disciplines. In future semesters, faculty will consider checking for a correlation between the student responses to the “Analyze the Discipline” exercises and the choice of major. Since these exercises were useful in achieving the desired outcomes of reinforcing critical thinking and P-E framework and better engaging students in department presentations, similar activities will be continued in the future. However, the issue of better and more rapid feedback must be addressed as must the fact that most students struggled with the elements assumptions and point of view. This will inform how the instruction of the P-E framework is taught in the future. In lecture presentations and group activities, more concrete examples of identifying elements and “going around the wheel” to analyze an article and a discipline (not necessarily engineering) will be done. The feedback issue is not new; all faculty know rapid, informative feedback is critical for student learning. However, in large classes, scoring written work in a timely manner is a challenge. These authors are challenged to find the best way to use these or similar exercises, but to give more rapid feedback. Part of our future work in this area includes determining the best approach for improvement of feedback, critical thinking instruction and student engagement. Some possibilities include focusing exercises on a smaller number of elements for each assignment, varying the element asked each time; developing some of these as team exercises; and working with the departments to make sure their presentations provide at least some information that gives students an understanding of most of the elements. By providing the students with quicker, more meaningful feedback, the authors feel that future “Analyze the Discipline” assignments can serve the dual purpose of further encouraging development of students’ critical thinking skills while enhancing the knowledge gained about various engineering disciplines. Download 407.01 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
Ma'lumotlar bazasi mualliflik huquqi bilan himoyalangan ©fayllar.org 2024
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling