Experiential Learning Environments: Do They Prepare Our Students to be Self‐Directed, Life‐Long Learners?

Jiusto, Scott; DiBiasio, David

doi:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2006.tb00892.x

Cited by 120 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…25 Jiusto and Dibiasio discuss lifelong learning as it relates to experiential learning, and Drew and Vaz specifically address information literacy preparation for WPI students. 4,20 Our work contributes further to this area of information literacy and project-based learning, off-campus and abroad, which has not yet been studies widely.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…It is also one of the best places to embed information literacy education; PBL is an established method of bringing both disciplinary skills and lifelong learning skills together in ways that are engaging for students, and in the case of service learning, impactful to communities or individual stakeholders. 4,5 WPI, as well as other institutions aiming to graduate future engineers across specializations, use student project outcomes to support professional as well as technical skills development for a wide variety of accreditation standards, including but not limited to those of ABET in the U.S.A. 6,7,8,9 Information literacy skills are critical to project-based learning outcomes, particularly in engineering disciplines. These skills can be seen holistically as well; they play a critical role in the development of lifelong learners who are effective users of information as students, professionals, and engaged community members.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Information Use by Undergraduate STEM Teams Engaged in Global Project-Based Learning

Hanlan¹,

Riley²

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Our research examines information literacy education and resource use in significant and successful projects connecting technology with human need completed over a twelve year period between 2003 and 2014 by STEM undergraduates at a technical institute. We explain the evolution of collaborations between librarians, faculty project advisors, and research methods instructors during the preparation and completion of complex multidisciplinary projects completed mainly off-campus at project centers in the United States and around the globe. The projects we examine are completed as a mandatory graduation requirement for mainly third year undergraduates, 71% of whom will graduate with engineering degrees. We sought to understand not only how librarians teach students about information seeking and lifelong learning, but how faculty instructors and advisors approach teaching these critical professional skills. In addition we sought to understand what information sources students actually use by reviewing the works cited within five award winning project team reports per year of our study, for a total of 60 projects and almost 3000 works cited. We learned that student teams, despite year, project location, or discipline of study and faculty advisor use a broad range of sources, both peerreviewed and not, and that these sources only partially correlate to the sources recommended by faculty. Most advisors depend on the support of librarians to help students achieve learning outcomes, and view personalized librarian consultations with project teams as the most critical piece of that support.

show abstract

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information Use by Undergraduate STEM Teams Engaged in Global Project-Based Learning

Hanlan¹,

Riley²

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some consider lifelong learning an outcome best measured a priori: in other words, it is cogitated as an aptitude that students will best epitomize once they are graduated and working as professional engineers 9,10 . It is difficult, some argue, to measure lifelong learning in an authentic and repeatable way 9 , as what comprises lifelong learning, and how we recognize and quantify it, are challenging to determine 11 .…”

Section: Background: Lifelong Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Becoming an Engineer: The Essential Role of Lifelong Learning Competencies

Cicek¹,

Ingram²,

Friesen³

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Similar to the ABET EC-2000 3a-k learning outcomes, one of the required attributes within the accreditation framework developed by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) is lifelong learning. It is a competency defined by CEAB as an ability to identify and to address [students'] own educational needs in a changing world in ways sufficient to maintain their competence and to allow them to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. It is an attribute that is often held up as an exemplar demonstrating the difficulties inherent in assessing the graduate attributes, particularly the ones that reflect the professional or workplace skills of engineers. Some consider lifelong learning an outcome best measured a priori: in other words, it is cogitated as an aptitude that students will best epitomize once they are graduated and working as professional engineers. However, the knowledge, skills, behaviours, attitudes and values that engender lifelong learning are indeed present in our students, and one of the most effective ways to activate and observe this attribute is to engage students in discussions regarding their experiences and perceptions of their learning. This paper presents the findings from a qualitative directed content analysis of two interviews and four focus groups, as 13 student participants discuss their learning experiences within their engineering programs in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba, a large research university in Central Canada. Students' lifelong learning aptitudes, which are defined in this study by Deakin Crick Et al.'s seven Dimensions of Learning Power, are evidenced in the data, demonstrating both the capacity of, and the means by which to assess this attribute while students are in our programs. Additionally, we can use students' developing competencies in lifelong learning to improve our own understanding of how students transform into becoming engineers. This paper makes a case for keeping lifelong learning as a required outcome and graduate attribute for our engineering students, and advocates for careful deliberation regarding the definition of lifelong learning, especially in regards to the recently proposed changes to ABET EC-2000 Criteria 3.

show abstract

“…In the relevant research on self-directed learning (SDL) in engineering education, Candy's work 19 is often cited 11,20,21 . Candy describes SDL as consisting of both product and process, each of which, he again subdivides.…”

Section: Metacognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, there is a pattern of research that indicates project-based learning can result in SDL development 20,21,32,34 Guglielmino's self-directed learning readiness scale (SDLRS) has been validated and widely used to measure self-directed learning readiness 20,21,[34][35][36] . SDLRS results The SDLRS can be used to predict success in PBL 36 .…”

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of PBL Students as Self-Directed Learners

Ulseth¹

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Iron Range EngineeringRon Ulseth directs and instructs in the Iron Range Engineering program in Virginia, Minnesota and he teaches in the Itasca Community College engineering program in Grand Rapids, MN. He was instrumental in growing the Itasca program from 10 students in 1992 to 160 students in 2010. In 2009, he worked with a national development team of engineering educators to develop the 100% PBL curriculum used in the Iron Range model. He has successfully acquired and managed over $10 million in educational grants including as PI on 7 grants from NSF. He has been in the classroom, teaching more than 20 credits per year to engineering students for more than 25 years. His specific areas of expertise are in active learning, faculty development, and learning community development. How PBL Graduates Experience Self-Directed Learning: A Phenomenographic Study Abstract This research paper describes the study of the impact of a project-based learning (PBL) curriculum on the learners' development of self-directed learning abilities. The motivation for this study is that self-directed learning (SDL) ability is positioned as one of the essential outcomes of engineering education. This can be seen in the following quote from the International Engineering Alliance 1 "The fundamental purpose of engineering education is to build a knowledge base and attributes to enable the graduate to continue learning and to proceed to formative development that will develop the competencies required for independent practice."There are many terms that are used to describe the processes that are desired in and used by individuals when they acquire new knowledge. Metacognition, lifelong learning, selfregulated learning, and self-directed learning are among those terms most commonly used. The commonalities and differences of these concepts are presented in the paper in order to then describe the development of the self-directed learning abilities in undergraduate students.This research is grounded in the prior works of others who have studied the changes of engineering students' SDL abilities across the four to five years of an undergraduate education. Compelling evidence is presented showing that students in a traditional, lecture-based, engineering education experience no significant growth as self-directed learners. Prior studies by multiple researchers indicate students experiencing PBL curricula have experienced significant growth. These studies all used the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS), a commercially available tool that has been administered to 120,000 adults and as been used in over 90 PhD studies.The researchers developed a qualitative study in an attempt to characterize how the PBL graduates experienced self-directed learning. 27 PBL graduates were interviewed. A phenomenographic methodology was used to determine how the graduates experience SDL in their engineering practice.The result of the qualitative study is a set of six different "ways of experiencing". In a phenomenography, the "ways of experiencing" are...

show abstract

Experiential Learning Environments: Do They Prepare Our Students to be Self‐Directed, Life‐Long Learners?

Cited by 120 publications

References 3 publications

Information Use by Undergraduate STEM Teams Engaged in Global Project-Based Learning

Information Use by Undergraduate STEM Teams Engaged in Global Project-Based Learning

On Becoming an Engineer: The Essential Role of Lifelong Learning Competencies

Development of PBL Students as Self-Directed Learners

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About