Assessing Problem-Solving Strategy Use by Engineering Undergraduates

Taraban, Roman; Anderson, Edward E.; Schumacher, John Richard; Dulli, Hani; Lamp, David

doi:10.18260/1-2--32116

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Regarding research question one, Figure 1 and Table 1 both shed some light on which strategies students tended to focus. The frequency data here supports other research done by Taraban and colleagues [13] showing that the application of multiple strategies translates broadly to problemsolving, not just the FE exam. It supports the use of multiple problem-solving strategies to improve performance and learning.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Assessment of Changes in Engineering Students' Problem-Solving Strategies in a Senior Level Review Class

Vaughn,

Taraban,

Khatib

2022 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Engineering students are trained to solve a multitude of problems ranging from those that are well-defined to those that require intuition and creativity. Although engineering educators have researched strategies that students utilize when problem solving, there is essentially no research on how engineering students change their strategies over time. The goal of this study was to gain information on how students proposed to change their strategies after problem-solving review activities and being prompted to reflect on how they would change their strategies on subsequent problems. The participants were chemical engineering students enrolled in a 3-hour senior level review course designed to prepare them to take the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. Data were collected through responses on a weekly survey for which students received a small homework credit. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were applied to the data. This research provides novel insights into how advanced students reflect on their problem-solving behaviors, which could be of pedagogical value to engineering educators. However, there was no evidence that the frequency of reflection on problem-solving strategies improved subsequent performance on the FE exam.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%