How innovativeness and handedness affect learning performance of engineering students?

Learning style has been proven to be an important factor that affects student learning performance. By knowing student learning styles, instructors can modify teaching material and teaching methods accordingly for the greater benefit of students. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of learning styles, students may adopt complementary learning strategies, thus improving their performance. The Index of Learning Styles (ILS) developed by Felder and Soloman has been widely used in the context of engineering education to enhance both teaching and learning. However, the general statistics and reliability of its Chinese version have not been reported. In this study, we conducted a survey, and 223 students majoring in mechanical engineering at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), Taiwan, participated. This study involved a comparison of the learning style profiles of the students against the results of prior related research conducted in the United States. Subsequently, the internal consistency coefficients of Cronbach’s alpha were examined. The results show that the participants were active, perceptive, visual, and sequential learners, similar to their counterparts in the United States. The internal consistency coefficients on the four dimensions in ILS are 0.49, 0.59, 0.64, and 0.36, respectively. The statistics are lower or approximately equal to those of the English version ILS.

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Exploring the Relationship Between Learners' Uncertainty Level and Learning Performance in an Authentic Problem-Based Learning Environment

Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development - Transforming Curriculum Through Teacher-Learner Partnerships ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-6445-5.ch010 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 179-198

Author(s):

Kah Heng Loh ◽

You Ping Lim

Keyword(s):

Learning Process ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Problem Based Learning ◽

Learning Performance ◽

Strong Negative Correlation ◽

Learning Satisfaction ◽

Learning Score ◽

The Relationship ◽

Uncertainty Level

Many educators believe that learners' learning experience can be enhanced by infusing uncertainty into their learning process. The authentic problem-based learning (APBL) model allows uncertainty to be incorporated into ill-structured problem to motivate learners' learning process. This study looks into the relationship between learners' uncertainty level and learning performance in APBL model which involve participation of 78 engineering students from Taylor's American Degree Program. A questionnaire consists of 30 items of uncertainty construct and 10 items of learning satisfaction is developed to measure learners' uncertainty level and satisfaction at the end of APBL. Learners' learning satisfaction, learning attitude, and learning score on APBL activities which form the learning performance is computed. The Cronbach's alphas for uncertainty construct and learning satisfaction are 0.89 and 0.92 respectively. The zero order Pearson's correlation analysis showed a strong negative correlation between uncertainty level and learning performance.

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Remodeling the STEM Curriculum for Future Engineers

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132212450 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (22) ◽

pp. 12450

Author(s):

Chun-Hung Lin ◽

Huei Chu Weng ◽

Kuan-Yu Chen ◽

Leon Yufeng Wu

Keyword(s):

Engineering Students ◽

Undergraduate Curriculum ◽

Higher Learning ◽

Learning Performance ◽

Control Groups ◽

Stem Majors ◽

Traditional Course ◽

Post Test ◽

And Control ◽

Northern Taiwan

Higher education is facing low enrollment, and fewer students are motivated to select STEM majors. This paper reports the results from one university that recently experimentally reformed its undergraduate curriculum to a “theme-based curricula”, the New Engineering Curriculum Program (NECP). The subjects in this study were 127 engineering students who applied for the NECP at a university in northern Taiwan. An experimental design using the pre- and post-test measurements of the experimental and control groups was applied in this study. The results revealed a significant effect among those who participated as second- and third-year undergraduates in terms of their subject-specific performances and attitudes of learning in various courses. Furthermore, the results showed that students in the NECP showed better learning performance and higher learning motivation than students in the traditional course module. The outcomes and analyses are discussed.

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