Effects of Integrating Authentic Engineering Problem Centered Learning on Student Problem Solving

摘要

Problem-solving is a critical skill for engineers, and thus a critical skill for engineering programs to teach. Although various approaches to address problem-solving exist, none uses nonlinear, unscaffolded, unstructured, open-ended problems provided by practicing engineers. To address this shortcoming, such authentic engineering problems (AEPs) were incorporated into a heat transfer course. AEPs are authentic problems developed by practicing engineering and are representative of the unstructured, open-ended problems encountered in industry. To make space for students (N = 35) to work on AEPs in class, the course was inverted, meaning that the standard course lecture content was moved online. This AEP Centered Learning (AEPCL) format was assessed by three measures-talk-alouds, student self-evaluations, and solution evaluations. Across all assessments AEPCL led to improved problem solving. Comparisons to the same course taught in a traditional format (N = 32) showed that these improvements came with no cost to students' understanding of the content or loss of ability to solve standard textbook problems.