How drawing prompts can increase cognitive engagement in an active learning engineering course

Abstract

Background: Recent engineering education research has found improved learning outcomes when instructors engage students actively (e.g., through practice problems) rather than passively (e.g., in lectures). As more instructors shift toward active learning, research needs to identify how different types of activities affect students' cognitive engagement with concepts in the classroom. In this study, we investigate the effects of prompting novice students to draw when solving problems, a professional practice of engineers. Purpose: We investigate whether implementing instructional prompts to draw in an active learning classroom (a) increases students' use and value of drawing as a problem-solving strategy and (b) enhances students' problem-solving performance. Method: We compared survey data and exam scores collected in one undergraduate class that received prompts to draw in video lectures and inclass problems (drawing condition) and one class that received no drawing prompts (control condition). Results: After drawing prompts were implemented, students' use and value of drawing increased, and these effects persisted to the end of the semester. Students were more likely to draw when provided drawing prompts. Furthermore, students who received prompts outperformed students who did not on exam questions that target conceptual understanding. Conclusions: Our findings reveal how implementing drawing prompts in an active learning classroom may help students engage in drawing and solve problems conceptually. This study contributes to our understanding of what types of active learning activities can improve instructional practices in engineering education. Particularly, we show how prompts that foster authentic engineering practices can increase cognitive engagement in introductory-level engineering courses.

Assessing Users’ Perception on the Current and Potential Educational Value of an Electrical Engineering YouTube Channel

“…These features might also be used by students when approaching such concepts. Aligned with this Wu et al [12] described how drawing prompts, both driven by classes and video, might constitute a useful tool to increase students' use of drawing as a problem-solving strategy. This practice, as quantified in their study case, can enhance cognitive engagement and performance in an engineering active learning environment.…”

“…Research in pedagogical use of video material provides numerous references of its enhancement of parameters such as long-term retention of concepts [10], comprehension and deeper learning [11]. Descriptive images and animations, usually included in educational videos, are helpful for complex and abstract concepts understanding, as they provide complementary meaning to theoretical explanations, and they can also be reproduced by students when incorporated as a new problem-solving strategy [12]. These educational videos often focus on the creation of interest and show examples of practical applications, which also promote students' engagement and develop their critical thinking ability [13].…”

The use of video essays and podcasts to enhance creativity and critical thinking in engineering

“…In the same line, Becerra & Almendra (2020) measure the motivation levels of students in the statistical inference module of an engineering course. The data showed a high motivation with the use of podcasts as a means of instruction in the course [ 12 ]. Moreover, the goal of the Chiodo et al .…”

Promoting Pre-service Teacher Students’ Learning Engagement: Design-Based Research in a Flipped Classroom

“…Providing more useful teaching strategies for teachers requires understanding how to design effective flipped instruction to promote students’ learning engagement, and how to support students’ learning engagement. In addition, it is worth noticing that some relevant studies only focused on one or two dimensions of learning engagement when discussing how to improve students’ learning engagement in flipped classrooms, such as students’ cognitive engagement ( Huang et al, 2019 ; Lo and Hew, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2020 ), and behavioral engagement ( Hodgson et al, 2017 ; Wang, 2017 ; Lai, 2021 ), but they have seldom carried out comprehensive investigations of students’ learning engagement ( Lo and Hew, 2021 ). Therefore, this study aimed to comprehensively explore students’ learning engagement in a flipped classroom to make up for the shortcomings of the above research.…”