A longitudinal study of alternative approaches to engineeringeducation: survey of assessment results

摘要

In the fall of 1990, the authors began a longitudinal study of acohort of students enrolled in the introductory engineering course.These students were taught in a sequence of five engineering courses infive consecutive semesters, using a variety of instructional methodsincluding extensive collaborative (team-based) learning, routineassignment of open-ended problems and problem formulation exercises, andother techniques designed to address the spectrum of learning stylesfound in all engineering classes. The students enrolled in theintroductory course in the fall 1992 semester were designated as acomparison group. Academic performance and retention data were collectedand attitudes and self-confidence levels were assessed for both groupsthroughout their second, third, and fourth years of college. This paperprovides a mostly qualitative summary of the assessment data analyzed sofar