scholarly journals Transformative Learning Experience for Incoming Freshmen Engineering Students Through Robotics Research

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baha Jassemnejad ◽  
Wei Pee ◽  
Kevin Rada ◽  
Montell Wright ◽  
Kaitlin Foran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Incoming Freshmen

scholarly journals FROM CRITICAL THINKING TO REFLECTION TO CITIZEN ENGINEERS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Anne Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Mobile Communications ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Multiple Group ◽  
5G Mobile Communications

What does it mean to be a “responsible engineer”? The question has been asked throughout history, including during times that were fraught with challenge, but the problems awaiting engineering students in Canada in 2021 are arguably unprecedented in their complexity. Technologically difficult problems resulted in recent advances such as the World Wide Web and 5G mobile communications, but today’s challenge derives not only from the global scale of man-made environmental problems and their impacts, but from lack of agreement around appropriate mitigation strategies and on the need to act at all. The engineering students of today must develop solutions to problems that have newly acknowledged and highly contentious human factors. In the Canadian context, new policy is emerging from Canada’s recognition that it must reconcile the harms of past policies towards Indigenous peoples. This recognition has created a discourse around equity that will shape the landscape in which graduates will practice. In preparing young engineers to navigate technological and social complexity, and to equip them to find personal fulfillment in an uncertain landscape, a reinvigorated emphasis on critical and relational thinking is required. In 2019 and 2020, students in a fourth-year class in Sustainability, (which includes a study of law, policy, and sustainability reporting metrics) participated in multiple group exercises that asked them to explore multiple facets of problematic or politically current issues. These learning activities sought to support a transformative learning experience in which students would come to recognize their ability to contribute as citizens to the development of responsible public policy. In these exercises they examined opposing positions and assessed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks, associated with each. That there was no RIGHT conclusion was emphasized. The only criteria for assessment was depth of exploration and logical chaining of evidence. Students learned about cultural perspectives from an Indigenous educator, and as they explored the diversity of viewpoints around the question of pipeline expansion in Canada. A final exercise asked students to reflect on the meanings of responsible policy and practice and how they would operationalize sustainability thinking.

A Transformative Learning Experience for Senior Nursing Students

2021 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Hunter Revell ◽  
Kristen A. Sethares ◽  
Elizabeth Danells Chin ◽  
Marni B. Kellogg ◽  
Deborah Armstrong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Learning Experience

CAD Platform Independent Software for Automatic Grading of Technical Drawings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanchit Ingale ◽  
Anirudh Srinivasan ◽  
Diana Bairaktarova
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Spatial Reasoning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Spatial Visualization ◽  
First Year ◽  
Spatial Skills ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Students Success ◽  
Mechanical Objects

Spatial visualization is the ability of an individual to imagine an object mentally and understand its spatial orientation. There have been multiple works proving that spatial visualization skills can be improved with an appropriate training. Such training warrant a critical place in the undergraduate engineering curricula in many engineering schools as spatial skills are considered vital for students’ success in the technical and design fields [1–4]. Enhanced spatial skills help not only professionals in the engineering field but also everyone in the 21st century environment. Drawing sectional views requires mental manipulation and visual thinking. To enhance students spatial reasoning, one of the authors of this study, conducted a class in spatial visualization. The course-learning goal aimed at improving first-year engineering students’ spatial reasoning through instruction on freehand drawings of sectional view. During the semester, two teaching assistants had to grade more than 500 assignments that consisted of sectional views of mechanical objects. This was a tedious and a time consuming task. Motivated by this experience, this paper proposes a software aiming at automating grading of students’ sectional view drawings. The proposed software will also give live feedback to students while they are working on the drawings. This interactive tool aims to 1) improve the learning experience of first year students, with limited CAD knowledge, and 2) introduce a pedagogical tool that can enhance spatial visualization training.

scholarly journals GLOBAL CLASSROOM: A CASE STUDY IN ONLINE LEARNING ON SUSTAINABLE CITIES

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Ibrahim ◽  
Allison Van Beek
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Diverse Classroom ◽  
Design Learning ◽  
Global Classroom

A new learning opportunity among civil engineering students is learning about urbanization in cities, which combines the sub-disciplines of civil engineering in a seamlessly interdisciplinary manner.  One of the greatest benefits of learning about a global phenomenon such as urbanization is introducing the opportunities to offer examples of the technological, cultural and social diversity surrounding the evolution of urban design, technologies and sustainable strategies from global cities. The ability to have a globally diverse classroom to bring in these perspectives and create a learning experience that captures this information sharing and exchange can be created through course design, learning activities, and assessments, hence the “global classroom.”  The authors present a case study of the global classroom for the online course “Sustainable Cities: Adding an African Perspective” and share their perspective on learner-driven formats that support the global classroom, which hinges upon students’ own interest and commitment to an online learning format.  

International Service-Learning

2016 ◽  
pp. 420-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joellen E. Coryell ◽  
Trae Stewart ◽  
Zane C. Wubbena ◽  
Tereza Cristina Valverde-Poenie ◽  
B. J. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
International Service Learning ◽  
International Service ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
The University

International Service-Learning (ISL) is a structured service-learning experience in another country where students learn from interaction, cross-cultural dialogue, and reflection. This humanistic pedagogy was utilized at the University of Canterbury after earthquakes rocked Christchurch, New Zealand (NZ) in 2010 and 2011. The present comparative-case study examined United States (US), European Union (EU), and Kiwi students' transformative learning through working together in a university-based ISL course designed around re-building Christchurch. Data were analyzed through the Kiely's (2005) Transformative Service-Learning Model. The findings of this study contribute new elements to the dimension of the model and argue that the concept of global citizenship may better explain a mixed cohort of international students' service-learning experiences in a post-disaster setting. Implications to the study's findings and recommendations for future research are briefly discussed.

Engineering Students’ Motivation to Learn Technical English in ESP Courses: Investigating Iranian Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions

RELC Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-226
Author(s):  
Saeedeh Jafari Pazoki ◽  
Minoo Alemi
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Motivation To Learn ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Motivation For Learning

Needs analysis is the key step to designing relevant and useful courses in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), but finding ways to deliver needs in a motivating and interesting way is also paramount. Therefore, investigating students’ motivation to learn ESP is central in needs analysis. Few studies have investigated needs from the perspective of ESP learners’ motivation. Focussing on engineering fields at three Iranian state universities, this study aimed to identify factors that affect engineering students’ motivation for learning technical English in ESP courses. Using a mixed method design, this study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews with 40 undergraduate students helped to identify motivational variables, select a theoretical framework and develop instruments for the second phase. In the second phase, a survey using a 28-item questionnaire with 152 students, semi-structured interviews with 60 students, in-depth interviews with eight ESP practitioners and non-participant observation in seven ESP classes were done in parallel. Principal Component Analysis on survey data resulted in five motivational components of main sources of engineering students’ motivation to learn technical English: 1) ideal-self, 2) ought-to self, 3) instrumentality promotion motivation, 4) learning conditions, and 5) learning experience. These components were in agreement with Dӧrnyei’s L2 Motivational Self-system. Further quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed that long-term goals and the practicalities of using technical English in every day life promote motivation more than a sense of obligation to learn technical English. Moreover, the results showed that Engineering students had negative attitudes towards elements of ESP learning experience, which best explained the reasons for students’ low motivation. The findings also supported the significant effect of academic levels on motivation. The factors that motivated students call for modifications in ESP courses which are discussed as pedagogical implications.

Enriching the intersection of service and transformative learning with Freirean ideas: The case of a critical experiential learning programme in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 579-597
Author(s):  
Rosane Dal Magro ◽  
Marlei Pozzebon ◽  
Soraia Schutel
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Management Students

In this article, we examine the value of combining transformative and service learning pedagogical practices in management education programmes to encourage management students to be more critical and reflexive regarding serious contemporary issues like social inequality and sustainability. We draw on a long-term management education experience conducted in the northeastern region of Brazil, where international students learn how to develop a real-time community-based project with local inhabitants. We argue that while service learning approaches promote pragmatic action-based principles, transformative learning acts at the epistemic level, contributing to change in values. In addition, Paulo Freire’s ideas are integrated to reinforce critical and reflexive dimensions of the learning experience. Our results offer a process-based model showing how a critical experiential learning pedagogy might lead to the development of community-based competences, which, in turn, might lead to changes in the deeply held values of the participants. Freire’s emancipatory ideas are applied not only regarding the relationship between teachers and students, but also to the distinction between Western and non-Western societies, going beyond questioning of the destructive consequences of financial capitalism to question the hegemony of one worldview over all other possible ones.

Teaching for Transformation: Master of Social Work Students Identify Teaching Approaches That Made a Difference

2019 ◽  
pp. 154134461986594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thecla Damianakis ◽  
Betty Barrett ◽  
Beth Archer-Kuhn ◽  
Patricia Samson ◽  
Sumaiya Matin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Master Of Social Work ◽  
Engagement Strategies

Transformative learning captures the process by which students engage in their learning, experience a change in perspective, of themselves or society, and then enact their new understanding. The purpose of this 4-year, four-cohort study was to identify the transformative learning experiences of Master of Social Work students and specific student engagement strategies they felt made a difference in preparing them for professional practice. Six focus groups ( n = 40) were conducted using established focus group methodology. All focus groups were audio recorded, professionally transcribed verbatim, and subject to qualitative content analysis. Students identified six themes in student engagement strategies that facilitated their transformative learning, including transformative aspects of the curriculum, experiences with peers, qualities in their relationships with faculty that fostered critical reflection, a sense of identity, and mentoring. This study will help educators better identify teaching strategies to engage students in their personal and professional transformative learning.

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