Using neuroeducation methods to compare engineering student performance on linear and systems tasks

摘要

This Research Work-in-Progress paper investigates engineering students' cognitive activities while completing linear and systems thinking tasks related to sustainability, which requires students to simultaneously utilize a large variety of constructs related to environmental, social, economic, and technical systems. To solve such interconnecting problems, systems thinking is necessary during decision-making rather than linear thinking modes that are more typical of solving closed-ended problem sets. This study uses an electroencephalogram (EEG) and self-report data to investigate engineering undergraduate students' cognitive activities when completing different tasks. We hypothesize that concept maps allow individuals to organize their thoughts within a systems thinking framework, and thus result in a more complete and holistic response than a linear thinking equivalent (i.e., listing task). We also hypothesize that creating a concept map is a more complex cognitive process than writing a list of terms and thus students (at least initially) would experience greater cognitive load while completing the concept mapping tasks. EEG and self-report measures of cognitive load will allow comparisons of undergraduate engineering students' performance on a linear or systems thinking task. Data collection is on-going so our paper will focus on methods, preliminary results, and future work.