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"I’m not a big English person but I liked this class”: Lessons from a collaboration between the School of Engineering and the English Department
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As growth mindset interventions increase in scope and popularity, scientists and policymakers are asking: Are these interventions effective? To answer this question properly, the field needs to understand the meaningful heterogeneity in effects. In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, we focused on two key moderators with adequate data to test: Subsamples expected to benefit most and implementation fidelity. We also specified a process model that can be generative for theory. We included articles published between 2002 (first mindset intervention) through the end of 2020 that reported an effect for a growth mindset intervention, used a randomized design, and featured at least one of the qualifying outcomes. Our search yielded 53 independent samples testing distinct interventions. We reported cumulative effect sizes for multiple outcomes (i.e., mindsets, motivation, behavior, end results), with a focus on three primary end results (i.e., improved academic achievement, mental health, or social functioning). Multilevel metaregression analyses with targeted subsamples and high fidelity for academic achievement yielded, d = 0.14, 95% CI [.06, .22]; for mental health, d = 0.32, 95% CI [.10, .54]. Results highlighted the extensive variation in effects to be expected from future interventions. Namely, 95% prediction intervals for focal effects ranged from −0.08 to 0.35 for academic achievement and from 0.07 to 0.57 for mental health. The literature is too nascent for moderators for social functioning, but average effects are d = 0.36, 95% CI [.03, .68], 95% PI [−.50, 1.22]. We conclude with a discussion of heterogeneity and the limitations of meta-analyses.
The aims of this paper are to examine the breadth of scholarship that emerged from a large-scale university-wide course transformation program between 2011 and 2021, to investigate how the course transformation program influenced students’ perceptions of their learning environment and learning achievement, and to discuss future directions for improving autonomy-supportive learning in higher education. We gathered all quantitative and qualitative publications related to the IMPACT course transformation program, and 35 articles were included in the study. Since the scope of the study topics in the course transformation program varied and program implementation was applied to various study contexts and disciplines, the findings were first summarized in a narrative manner. Additionally, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the course transformation based on 10 journal articles that adopted quasi-experimental designs. The findings revealed that the courses redesigned through the program supported students’ positive learning experiences, including motivation, satisfaction regarding basic psychological needs, knowledge transferability, and academic performance. This paper discusses implications and future directions to enhance undergraduate students’ academic success through course redesign. Further exploration is needed to determine the additional effect of course redesign in higher education.
The aim of the special issue is to bring together important current international research on innovative teaching and learning practices in mathematics in engineering education, and to develop deeper understandings of the characteristics of current teaching and learning practices that can inform the design and implementation of future innovative practice. The focus of this review paper is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of this emerging field at the cross-roads between mathematics and engineering education, in addition to introducing the papers of this special issue. To guide this paper, we posed three review questions: (1) How can current (teaching/learning/study) practices of mathematics in engineering education be characterized with a view towards innovation?; (2) What are the ‘resources’ (cognitive, material, digital, social) used, and what are those that appear also well suited for innovative courses?; (3) What are promising innovative practices in mathematics in engineering education, and what are the implications for curriculum reform? Looking back across the studies we summarized in the review, we conclude that they are lagging behind the more fundamental changes that are happening in engineering education, whilst addressing selected aspects of innovative changes within the current system of engineering education. At the same time, the nine papers of this special issue contribute new perspectives for innovative practices in mathematics in engineering education, for a better understanding of current practices and for future research.
Learning the tools and conventions of expert communication in the sciences provides multiple benefits to bioscience students, yet often these skills are not formally taught. To address this need, we designed a writing-intensive microbiology course on emerging infectious diseases to provide upper-division students with science-specific writing skills along with disciplinary course content. The course followed the guidelines of our university’s Writing Intensive Curriculum (WIC) program. Students wrote a press release, a case study, a controversy/position paper, and a grant prospectus, and revised drafts after feedback. To assess the course, in 2015 and 2016 we administered pre-post surveys and collected writing samples for analysis. Students reported on their experience, training, skills, and knowledge before taking the course. They then rated the extent to which the assignments, lectures, in-class activities, and writing activities contributed to their attainment of the learning outcomes of the course. Students entering the class were inexperienced in tools of science writing and the specific genres covered by the class. Their confidence levels rose in both skills and knowledge. Feedback from instructors was cited as most helpful in the majority of the areas where students reported the most gains. The survey provided evidence that discipline-specific knowledge had been acquired
through writing activities. Teaching science writing by allowing the students to write “fiction” (e.g., a case report about a fictional patient) was effective in maintaining a high level of interest, both in learning the conventions of the genre and in seeking out detailed information about emerging infectious diseases. Both the course structure and the specific assignments would be useful at other institutions to teach science writing.
Curricula designed in the context of the European Higher Education Area need to be based on both domain-specific and professional competencies. Whereas universities have had extensive experience in developing students’ domain-specific competencies, fostering professional competencies poses a new challenge we need to face. This paper presents a model to globally develop professional competencies in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree program, and assesses the results of its implementation after 4 years. The model is based on the use of competency maps, in which each competency is defined in terms of competency units. Each competency unit is described by a set of expected learning outcomes at three domain levels. This model allows careful analysis, revision, and iteration for an effective integration of professional competencies in domain-specific subjects. A global competency map is also designed, including all the professional competency learning outcomes to be achieved throughout the degree. This map becomes a useful tool for curriculum designers and coordinators. The results were obtained from four sources: (1) students’ grades (classes graduated from 2013 to 2016, the first 4 years of the new Bachelor’s Degree in Informatics Engineering at the Barcelona School of Informatics); (2) students’ surveys (answered by students when they finished the degree); (3) the government employment survey, where former students evaluate their satisfaction of the received training in the light of their work experience; and (4) the Everis Foundation University-Enterprise Ranking, answered by over 2000 employers evaluating their satisfaction regarding their employees’ university training, where the Barcelona School of Informatics scores first in the national ranking. The results show that competency maps are a good tool for developing professional competencies in a STEM degree.
Most scientists agree that comprehension of primary scientific papers and communication of scientific concepts are two of the most important skills that we can teach, but few undergraduate biology courses make these explicit course goals. We designed an undergraduate neuroimmunology course that uses a writing-intensive format. Using a mixture of primary literature, writing assignments directed toward a layperson and scientist audience, and in-class discussions, we aimed to improve the ability of students to 1) comprehend primary scientific papers, 2) communicate science to a scientific audience, and 3) communicate science to a layperson audience. We offered the course for three consecutive years and evaluated its impact on student perception and confidence using a combination of pre- and postcourse survey questions and coded open-ended responses. Students showed gains in both the perception of their understanding of primary scientific papers and of their abilities to communicate science to scientific and layperson audiences. These results indicate that this unique format can teach both communication skills and basic science to undergraduate biology students. We urge others to adopt a similar format for undergraduate biology courses to teach process skills in addition to content, thus broadening and strengthening the impact of undergraduate courses.
As is true for engineering communication programs nationwide, at MIT curricular and pedagogical reforms have been driven by changes in the kinds of problems that engineers solve and the associated skill sets that engineers must now have in communication and teamwork. This article presents three case studies from communication-intensive classes at MIT that intend to help students develop the advanced communication skills required of professional engineers today. Highlighting classes in biological engineering, aeronautics/astronautics engineering, and biomedical engineering, we explore the following questions: What does it mean for educational practice if professional communication competencies and tasks are the goals? How can students and technical faculty best create the conditions for students to learn to be skilled team members? How can engineering students move from mere display of data to making skilled visual arguments based on those data? The importance of helping students meet the target competencies of professional practice, of teaching effective teamwork and collaboration, and of teaching students to understand and argue with visual data are recognized as widespread needs, and these case studies attest to the possibilities and challenges in meeting those needs.
italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution:
This article describes and evaluates a novel undergraduate communication skills course for engineering students. The course focuses on improving student communication skills by using interactive lectures and authentic assessment activities in a scalable manner.
Background:
Published studies and reports suggest communication skills are becoming increasingly important for young engineers. Accordingly, communication skills are often included in engineering curricula. Engineering graduates typically lack these skills because they underestimate the importance of communication skills, while methods in teaching and assessing these skills remain inadequate. Providing proper support to students in acquiring communication skills and subsequently assessing learning outcomes without significantly increasing teacher workload is a challenge.
Intended Outcomes:
The intended outcome described in this article involves a scalable approach to teaching communication skills to undergraduate engineering students. The approach focuses on interaction during live lectures, authentic activities, and technology to achieve efficiencies for a small number of teaching staff holding the course to a large student population. In line with the expectancy-value theory (EVT) framework, the expectation is that the approach will have a positive effect on student perceptions of the importance of communication skills, which predict positive learning outcomes.
Application Design:
The course includes live lectures, practical homework assignments, and other authentic activities like elevator pitching, participating in job interviews as well as workshops or presentations. The importance in live lectures is placed on achieving interactivity by using an audience response system (AuResS). A peer review approach is used to assess homework assignments. Data from a survey of students qualifying their perceptions of communication skills were collected four times during the semester and analyzed along with their final course percentage.
Findings:
The study findings suggest first-semester engineering students think communication skills are important for engineers, and particularly value the authentic activities implemented in the course, even though the activities required more work on their behalf. However, only a small, statistically significant correlation was found between student opinions on the importance of communication skills and their course achievements. The AuResS and peer review, essential from the teachers’ perspective, were successfully used to achieve scalability in learning and assessment under the conditions described in this article.
In neuroscience and other scientific disciplines, instructors increasingly appreciate the value of writing. Teaching students to write well helps them succeed in school, not only because they perform better on assessments but also because well-structured writing assignments improve learning. Moreover, the ability to write well is an essential professional skill, because good clear writing in conjunction with good clear thinking results in increased success in fellowship applications, grant proposals, and publications. However, teaching writing in neuroscience classrooms is challenging for several reasons. Students may not initially recognize the importance of writing, teachers may lack training in the pedagogy of writing instruction, and both teachers and students must commit substantial time and effort to writing if progress is to be made. Here, we detail effective strategies for teaching writing to undergraduates, including scaffolding of teaching assignments, both within a class and across a curriculum; use of different types of writing assignments; early integration of writing into courses; peer review and revision of assignments; mentoring by student tutors; and use of defined rubrics. We also discuss how these strategies can be utilized effectively in the context of multicultural classrooms and labs.
Background: With communication skills deemed increasingly important for engineering graduates, we wanted to understand how writing is currently included in engineering classes, what challenges are caused by including writing in such classes, and what resources would be most useful to help engineering instructors more easily include writing in engineering classes. Literature review: Writing is a necessary skill for engineering graduates and has received increased attention in engineering classes. However, despite many instructors’ beliefs that writing is an important skill for engineers, it is not typically taught in a systematic and comprehensive way across the engineering curriculum. Research questions: 1. What perceptions of writing, and specifically writing in engineering, do engineering instructors hold? 2. To what extent do engineering instructors report incorporation of writing activities and assignments in their classes? 3. What barriers do engineering instructors perceive as inhibiting the inclusion of more writing in engineering courses? 4. What resources do engineering instructors desire to expand and improve the inclusion of writing in engineering courses? Research methods: A survey was completed by engineering instructional staff (n = 190 respondents, 10.7% response rate) from seven institutions as well as by some members of the Big10+ Engineering Deans Mailing List. Instructors were asked about their general perceptions about writing in engineering and were also asked to consider the most recent engineering course that they taught and reflect on how they included (or did not include) writing in their course. Findings and conclusions: As expected, we found that most engineering instructional staff agree that writing skills are very important in engineering. Yet, we found that constraints on time and resources kept instructors from including more writing in their courses. This paper concludes with a discussion of our efforts to develop resources, such as rubrics, graded writing examples, and strategies for developing writing prompts, to help instructors include more writing in their engineering courses.
A writing-intensive, upper-level undergraduate course which integrates content, context, collaboration, and communication in a unique fashion, is described. The topic of the seminar is “Scientific Writing in Chemistry” and an assignment-based curriculum was developed to instruct students on best practices in all aspects of science communication and to educate students about the scientific publication process and peer review. To effectively teach students how to understand science, both the content and the process must be included. Peer review is an integral and essential part of the process of science and the peer review tasks in the course described in this paper evolve from rubric-based peer assessments to free-format peer review. The curriculum was developed for a semester-long, three-hour seminar with limited enrolment. The curriculum was taught in the Spring semesters of 2010 - 2014 and enrolment data and results of evaluations collected over four years are presented to demonstrate the success of the implementations
Early psychological scientists interested in the regulation of behavior focused primarily on reinforcements such as tangible rewards that were said to strengthen the associative bonds that regulated people's behavior (Hull, 1943; Skinner, 1953). An associative bond is a hypothetical construct represented as a mechanistic link between some type of stimulus and a particular response, which then prompts the response when that stimulus is present. With reinforcements and associative bonds as the determiners of behavior, people's thoughts were said to be irrelevant to the causes of behavior.
A theoretical model of nonscience majors' motivation to learn science was tested by surveying 369 students in a large-enrollment college science course that satisfies a core curriculum requirement. Based on a social-cognitive framework, motivation to learn science was conceptualized as having both cognitive and affective influences that foster science achievement. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypothesized relationships among the variables. The students' motivation, as measured by the Science Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ), had a strong direct influence on their achievement, as measured by their science grade point average. The students' motivation was influenced by their belief in the relevance of science to their careers. This belief was slightly stronger in women than men. Essays by the students and interviews with them provided insight into their motivation. The model suggests that instructors should strategically connect science concepts to the careers of nonscience majors through such means as case studies to increase motivation and achievement. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1088–1107, 2007
Composition Program Outcomes
- English Department
English Department. "Composition Program Outcomes." University of Colorado Denver
English Department. https://clas.ucdenver.edu/english/composition-program-outcomes
(accessed Feb. 10, 2023).