‘Assessment as Learning’ as a tool to prepare engineering students to manage ill-defined problems in industry

摘要

Under-preparedness of engineering students to solve ill-defined problems in industry is a significant shortfall in Higher Education (HE). The root cause of under-preparedness is, ‘problems’ that need to be resolved in workplace settings in the real world are notably different to traditional textbook problems presented in class. Thus, a transformation in pedagogical approach is needed in HE as industry problems are often more complex and are commonly poorly defined. Against this backdrop, a redesigned assessment strategy in an Applied Statistics class for final year students at a University of Technology (UoT) presented an opportunity to re-think traditional assessment methods.An assessment strategy was designed as an intervention which included a series of online self- and peer-assessments (formative online assessments under guidance of the lecturer) which culminated in development of a final industry style report with a potential solution to the problem. The aim of the teaching intervention was to promote metacognition and thereby improve students’ problem-solving skills. Prior to the commencement of this study, ethical clearance was requested and obtained through institutional channels.The results of this study demonstrate that the ‘assessment as learning’ (AaL) teaching intervention enjoyed a certain degree of success, as the findings were AaL facilitated metacognition in students which is vital to solve ill-defined problems. This research also confirmed the importance of feedback during an AaL project and foregrounded the critical role of the educator in an AaL project. It is proposed that this research serves as a pilot study since the findings of this research are capable of providing a foundation for an improved AaL teaching intervention. The paper concludes with implications and limitations of the study and recommendations for future research.