ERIC Number: ED664795
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0949-149X
EISSN: N/A
Unique Contributions of Individual Reflections and Teamwork on Engineering Students' Academic Performance and Achievement Goals
Saira Anwar; Muhsin Menekse
Grantee Submission, International Journal of Engineering Education v36 n3 p1018-1033 2020
Prior literature in engineering education has focused on student-centered learning by utilizing active, constructive, and interactive instructional strategies. However, most research focused on evaluating the effectiveness of these instructional strategies by comparing them with traditional approaches, which typically placed students in passive roles. This paper aims to investigate the relative effectiveness of constructive and interactive strategies and understand the unique contribution of each once introduced simultaneously in a large engineering class. Specifically, we used team-based learning and prompted students to reflect on their learning experiences. We hypothesized that these instructional strategies enhance students' academic performance and achievement goals. In this semester-long study, we collected data from 120 engineering students. The dataset included a total of 3430 student reflections in 26 lectures, teamwork behaviors, collected four times during the semester, pre and post-survey of students' achievement goals, students' prior academic success, and students' three exam scores as academic performance measures. To effectively collect the data, we used educational technology tools designed specifically for these instructional strategies. We used CourseMIRROR to collect students' reflections data, and CATME Smarter Teamwork to collect students' peer evaluation of teamwork behaviors. The results indicated that students' reflection specificity and teamwork behaviors improved over time in a semester. Further, teamwork behaviors were strong predictors of students' academic performance in the exams after controlling for prior success. We also found that while teamwork behavior had a better contribution to predicting students' mastery and performance goals, the reflection specificity was a better predictor of students' avoidance goals. Lastly, while there was no significant difference from pre to post in performance-approach and performance-avoidance, there was a significant decline in students' mastery approach after being engaged in both instructional strategies.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305A180477