HELICAL LEARNING MODEL APPLIED IN AN INDUSTRIAL ELECTROCHEMISTRY ENGINEERING COURSE

摘要

In education, a popular model employed to represent the learning process is typically portrayed as a four-stage process signified by a cycle in a two-dimensional circular path. This cycle can be repeated by revisiting topics at increasing levels of sophistication in order to produce what is known as a spiral curriculum. In this presentation, a variation of Kolb's two-dimensional learning cycle model is offered that represents the learning cycle as if it were a three-dimensional spiral or helix, with successive turns associated with increases in Bloom's Taxonomic level. This representation is explored and developed, with a specific example from a chemical engineering course offered in Industrial Electrochemistry. This more comprehensive concept-centered model for the learning cycle explicitly includes higher order thinking skills to promote creative thinking, through the application of concepts and can be used to develop more effective curricula and course instruction. Specifically, our sample class consists of four teams, each of which is responsible for becoming expert in the concepts associated with an area of science and another of application. Transfer of content is student driven while topics are explored. Students teaching each other allows for synergistic enhanced motivation to explore, with concurrent ultimate improvement in the retention of core concepts by the entire course population.