Using Kolb’s Learning Cycle to Improve Student Sustainability Knowledge

Abstract

Engineers are increasingly called upon to develop and implement innovative solutions that serve a growing population, while simultaneously exploiting fewer resources and minimizing environmental impacts. As such, improvements in undergraduate curricula are needed to train students to operate under a sustainable development paradigm. A learning-cycle-based sustainability module was adapted and implemented in a cornerstone design course within a civil engineering program at a large, research-intensive institution in the United States. One cornerstone cohort participated in a peer-lecture version of the module, while the second cohort participated in a peer-discussion version. Concept maps, scored using three different methods, were used to measure changes in students’ sustainability knowledge. A self-report survey was used to measure changes in students’ perceptions of their sustainability knowledge and skills. Students in both the peer-lecture and peer-discussion cohorts demonstrated improved sustainability knowledge networks and confidences after participation in the module. However, peer-lecture students showed greater improvements in knowledge connectedness (a feature of expert-like knowledge) than peer-discussion students. Regardless of cohort, cornerstone students demonstrated greater gains in knowledge and confidence than did a cohort of capstone students who participated in an earlier implementation of the module. Future implementations may be most impactful if the peer-discussion format is integrated into early design courses.

Comparing Measures of Student Sustainable Design Skills Using a Project-Level Rubric and Surveys

“…However, even after module completion, the economic area tended to be somewhat under-represented in concept maps [24]. Survey results generally aligned with concept map findings, although civil engineering students completing the module as part of a cornerstone design course perceived greater gains in their sustainability knowledge than students completing the module as part of a capstone design course [19]. While multiple studies support the efficacy of the learning-cycle-based module for improving sustainability knowledge among undergraduate engineering students, additional work is needed to capture impacts on sustainable design skills.…”

“…While earlier studies clearly show that participation in the module helped students to develop a richer understanding of sustainability [17,19,23], the impacts on sustainable design skills are somewhat mixed. Students participating in the module felt more confident in their ability to meet ten out of twelve sustainable design competencies, as compared to only one for students not participating in the module (Table 9).…”

“…A sustainability module was previously developed to guide civil engineering students in learning about and applying sustainability principles during design [17][18][19][20]. The module was designed to lead students through activities that were structured to follow Kolb's learning cycle [21,22].…”

“…The sustainability module has been implemented at two different institutions in the US with students across academic years in civil engineering [17,19] and interdisciplinary engineering [18,23] programs. In previous studies, the impacts of the module on students' conceptual understanding of sustainability were assessed using concept maps and student self-report surveys.…”

Identificação e análise de estilos de aprendizagem para aprimorar o ensino em uma disciplina da engenharia

“…Lançou-se mão de demonstrações, com "as mãos na massa" (visita a estação metereológica e aulas práticas: medição de vazão, determinação da taxa de infiltração da água solo, estatística aplicada a hidrologia e caracterização morfométrica de uma bacia hidrográfica) para serem atingidos os aprendizes ativos e como concluído por (Alice & David, 2018;Konak et al, 2014;Stice, 1987;Watson et al, 2019) os estudantes retêm 90 por cento do que dizem enquanto fazem alguma coisa.…”