THE APPLICATION OF THRESHOLD CONCEPTS’ CHARACTERISTICS TO IMPROVE A DESIGN-FOCUSED COURSE IN TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

摘要

Design is an integral part of engineering courses. Addressing design problems is a challengingtask in instruction because of its openness and complexity. To address the challenges associatedwith highway design, two theoretical models were implemented in an introductory transportationengineering course. First, the theoretical framework proposed by the threshold concepts modelwas used to identify a candidate-concept for the instructional redesign process. Two majorcharacteristics of threshold concepts, integrativity and transformativity were used to identifyhorizontal alignment as a candidate-concept for the highway design process.Second, concept mapping was used to create operational measures of integrativity of complexconcepts such as horizontal alignment. Using the resulted maps and measures, several changes tothe structure of lecture materials and project tasks were made. Finally, reflective assessmentitems were administered after each redesigned instructional task and at the end of the course tofind evidence of potential transformativity of the proposed instructional changes. Theimplementation of the above-mentioned theoretical framework allowed the instructor tosuccessfully streamline the instructional process, with benefits on students’ perceptions andattitudes toward learning of highway design.