Designing Cognitive Apprenticeships for Biomedical Engineering

Abstract

This article explores challenges involved in developing effective and workable models for engineering education that emphasize the development of student cognitive skills over the delivery of specific course content. It chronicles efforts to systematically design engineering learning environments based on cognitive and learning science studies and then to optimize those environments through “design‐based research.” It follows the evolutionary trajectory of curricular design efforts over four years using Problem‐based Learning (PBL) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, elucidating the activities, mistakes, realizations and the progressive refinements instituted towards the development of learning theory in the context of biomedical engineering. It argues for the need to scaffold students in the development of model‐based reasoning throughout the engineering curricula.

Problem-Based Learning in Engineering Ethics Courses

“…PBL originated in the MD Program at McMaster University in the 1960s (Neufeld & Barrows, 1974). Since then, it has been adapted for courses and programs in other health professions, as well as in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering (Newstetter, 2005). There is a scattering of instances of PBL in other disciplines (Amador, Miles, & Peters, 2006) and in programs in reading and writing (Collins, Brown et al, 1987), but I found only a small handful of examples of PBL in practical ethics for engineers (Chang & Wang, 2011;I.…”

Incorporating student-centered approaches into catchment hydrology teaching: a review and synthesis

“…Conversely, a study in the Netherlands concluded that PBL was not suited to engineering instruction (Perrenet et al, 2000). One example of the successful implementation of PBL is in the biomedical engineering program at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Newstetter, 2005). This program implements elements of the PBL approach from the beginning to the end of the curriculum asking students to undertake such tasks as: designing a device to rapidly identify types of mold present in a room or using biomechanics to determine the probability that a deceased infant died from a brain injury received from shaking (see Newstetter, 2005, for a detailed description of this program).…”

“…One example of the successful implementation of PBL is in the biomedical engineering program at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Newstetter, 2005). This program implements elements of the PBL approach from the beginning to the end of the curriculum asking students to undertake such tasks as: designing a device to rapidly identify types of mold present in a room or using biomechanics to determine the probability that a deceased infant died from a brain injury received from shaking (see Newstetter, 2005, for a detailed description of this program). PBL is well suited for the investigations of comparisons between places, techniques, methods and times: approaches which may offer students insights into contemporary issues of non-stationarity, empirical versus process-based approaches, and the challenges of generalization and upscaling from small-scale examples (Shaw and Walter, 2012).…”

Teaching as a Design Process: A Framework for Design-based Research in Engineering Education

“…A defining feature of design research is documentation of iterative cycles of model design 5,9 . In some reports of design research, the investigators include explanation of the revisions made to their design over time grounding those revisions in both theoretical implications and results of data collection and analysis cycles 9,18,20 . In our case, the model under design is a teaching development group model used to increase the successful implementation of interactive teaching strategies.…”

“…In our case, we began with a few guiding principles that emerged from our review of literature and experience with teaching, and then refined and added principles as the teaching development project proceeded. Additional examples from engineering education focus on designing learning environments or other activities for students 20,23 .…”