A Paradigm for Assessing Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge in Engineering Students

Abstract

Conceptual and procedural knowledge are two mutually-supportive factors associated with the development of engineering skill. The present study extends previous work on undergraduate learning in engineering to provide further validation for an assessment paradigm capable of quantifying engineering students' conceptual and problem-solving knowledge. Eight students who were enrolled in an introductory thermodynamics course and four who were enrolled in the course sequel provided verbal protocol data as they used instructional software. They were compared to existing data from a cohort of eleven science and engineering majors who had not taken thermodynamics. The results replicated earlier findings showing more cognitive activity on computer screens requiring overt user interaction compared to text-based screens. The data also indicated that higher-versus lower-performing students, based on course grades, engaged in more higher-order cognitive processing. There was no evidence that students gained deeper cognitive processing as they advanced through the engineering curriculum.

Conceptual and Procedural Approaches to Mathematics in the Engineering Curriculum: Student Conceptions and Performance

“…The importance of knowing the ways in which conceptual and procedural knowledge interact and contribute to the development of expertise and skills in pedagogical practice has also been widely acknowledged in engineering disciplines (Chi, 2005;Litzinger, Van Meter, Wright, & Kulikowich, 2006;Taraban, et al, 2007).…”

“…However, there are at the same time high expectations in terms of analytic and creative knowledge-based skills on engineers in the work force, which speaks to a need of conceptual mathematical knowledge. The issue of conceptual versus procedural understanding understanding is also relevant in other fields, such as thermodynamics (Taraban, Definis, Brown, Anderson, & Sharma, 2007), where research suggests that engineering students strive to develop conceptual knowledge but at low cognitive levels.…”

Assessing students' integrative learning in biomedical engineering from the perspectives of structure, behavior, and function

“…Recently the research community also actively looks into how engineering students learn. For example, there are studies in assessing engineering students' conceptual and procedural knowledge about thermodynamics [3], as well as the investigation into conceptual understanding in graduate-level engineering and mechanics courses [4].…”

Community College Students’ Self-efficacy and Conceptual Knowledge of Circuit Analysis

“…Higher thought is likely to be clouded if that foundation is weak, unclear, or misunderstood 15 . When concepts are well-understood, students are often able to explain related problems, make inferences from the problem, integrate other ideas, predict outcomes and apply conceptual knowledge to other areas 17 .…”

“…The ability to measure conceptions can help engineering educators address misconceptions instead of assuming that concepts are understood, or worse, leaving those misconceptions in place, to possibly influence future learning in a negative way 17 . Misconceptions can make it extremely difficult for students to accept and learn new information, which is why identification of those misconceptions is so important 18 .…”