Learning style preference and critical thinking perception among engineering students

Engineering education plays a vital role towards modernization of world. Therefore, engineering students need to be nurture with multiple skills like learning preferences and critical thinking skills. This study has been conducted to identify the learning style preferences and critical thinking perception of the engineering students from three programs electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Johor. Survey research design was applied in this study. The quantitative data was collected by two questionnaires Index of Learning Styles (ILS) that is based on Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM) and Critical Thinking Skills (CTS) questionnaire which consists of analysis, evaluation, induction and deduction in terms of problem solving and decision making. A total of 315 final year engineering students were participated in this study. Data was analyzed in descriptive and inferential statistics involving tests Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson Correlation and linear regression. The study discovered that engineering students are preferred to be visual learners (83.80%). Visual learning style denotes FSLSM input dimension and visual learners learn best by diagrams, charts, maps and graphical presentations. This study also found that engineering students possess critical thinking perception in all dimensions. However, there is no statistical significant difference of learning style found among engineering programs as “p” value found 0.357. Whereas, there is statistical significant critical thinking difference found among engineering programs as “p” value found 0.006. Lastly, findings revealed that there is no significant relationship found between learning styles and critical thinking skills. The study findings suggested that providing preferred learning style (visual learning style) in classroom will enhance students’ academic achievement and increase their cognitive level. This study might serve as a guideline for educators to facilitate learners to enhance their learning and thinking for better outcomes in academia as well as in workplace

Learning requirements engineering within an engineering ethos

An interest in educating software developers within an engineering ethos may not align well with the characteristics of the discipline, nor address the underlying concerns of software practitioners. Education for software development needs to focus on creativity, adaptability and the ability to transfer knowledge. A change in the way learning is undertaken in a core Software Engineering unit within a university's engineering program demonstrates one attempt to provide students with a solid foundation in subject matter while at the same time exposing them to these real-world characteristics. It provides students with a process to deal with problems within a metacognitive-rich framework that makes complexity apparent and lets students deal with it adaptively. The results indicate that, while the approach is appropriate, student-learning characteristics need to be investigated further, so that the two aspects of learning may be aligned more closely

Learning as acquiring a discursive identity through participation in a community: improving student learning in engineering education

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in African Journal of Research in Mathematics Science and Technology Education on 2009, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03043790902989457.In this paper, we propose that learning in engineering involves taking on the discourse of an engineering community, which is intimately bound up with the identity of being a member of that community. This leads to the notion of discursive identity, which emphasises that students' identities are constituted through engaging in discourse. This view of learning implies that success in engineering studies needs to be defined with particular reference to the sorts of identities that students develop and how these relate to identities in the world of work. In order to achieve successful learning in engineering, we need to recognise the multiple identities held by our students, provide an authentic range of engineering-related activities through which students can develop engineering identities and make more explicit key aspects of the discourse of engineering of which lecturers are tacitly aware. We include three vignettes to illustrate how some of the authors of this paper (from across three different institutions) have applied this perspective of learning in their teaching practice

THE INFLUENCE OF LEARNING OUTCOMES PRODUCTIVE SUBJECTS AND SELF-RELIANCE LEARNING WITH ACHIEVEMENT INDUSTRIAL WORK PRACTICES STUDENTS OF GRADE XII ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING SKILLS PROGRAM AT SMKN 3 YOGYAKARTA ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013

This study aimed to determine: (1) the influence of Learning Outcomes Productive Subjects with Achievement Industrial Work Practices students of grade XII Electronics Engineering Skills Program at SMKN 3 Yogyakarta Academic Year 2012/2013. (2) the influence Self-Reliance Learning with Achievement Industrial Work Practices students of grade XII Electronics Engineering Skills Program at SMKN 3 Yogyakarta Academic Year 2012/2013. (3) the influence of Learning Outcomes Productive Subjects and Self-Reliance Learning jointly with Achievement Industrial Work Practices students of grade XII Electronics Engineering Skills Program at SMKN 3 Yogyakarta Academic Year 2012/2013. This research is a study of ex post facto. The population of the research are students of grade XII Electronics Engineering Skills Program Academic Year 2012/2013 amounts to 69 students who entirely taken as a subject of research. Testing instruments has implemented by 33 student of grade XI Electronics Engineering Skills Program. The validity of the tests carries out by the technique of Pearson Product Moment correlation, whereas the reliability test used Alpha Cronbach formula. To know how the influence of Learning Outcomes Productive Subject with Achievement Industrial Work Practices and the influence of Self-Reliance Learning with Achievement Industrial Work Practices can use analysis techniques of Product Moment correlation. Regression analysis techniques use to know the influence of Learning Outcomes Productive Subject and Self-Reliance Learning jointly with the Achievements Industrial Work Practices. The results showed that: (1) there is a positive influence between Learning Outcomes Productive Subject with Achievement Industrial Work Practices students of grade XII Electronics Engineering Skills Program at SMKN 3 Yogyakarta Academic Year 2012/2013 as evidenced by the price of rx1y (0,340) is greater than rtabel (0.235) at the 5% significance level. (2) there is a positive influence between Self-Reliance Learning with Achievement Industrial Work Practices students of grade XII Electronics Engineering Skills Program at SMKN 3 Yogyakarta Academic Year 2012/2013 as evidenced by the price rx2y (0,353) greater than rtabel (0.235) at the 5% significance level. (3) there is a positive influence between Learning Outcomes Productive Subject and Self- Reliance Learning jointly with Achievements Industrial Work Practices students of grade XII Electronics Engineering Skills Program at SMKN 3 Yogyakarta Academic Year 2012/2013 as evidenced by the price of Ry (1,2) (0,440) greater than rtabel (0.235) at the 5% significance level. The coefficient of determination is (R2y (1, 2)) of 0,194. Effective contribution of Learning Outcomes Productive Subject of 9,2732% and Self-Reliance Learning of 10,1268%. Keywords: productive subject, self-reliance learning, industrial work practice

Game-Based Learning in Engineering Education

The new generation of undergraduates entering UK higher education have grown up with computer games of ever increasing sophistication. In this educational project a race game, Racing Academy, was developed to investigate how game technology and gaming communities could enhance undergraduate engineering education. The computer game embodied the principles of engineering dynamics to simulate and display in real time a car drag race in which students ‘designed’ their car by selecting an engine, tyres and gearbox from a set menu. The aim was to complete a set course in the minimum time and graphically display the dynamic performance in order to better understand the engineering system. The students and staff involved in this project provided extensive feedback on the exercise and identified the visual nature of game-based learning software as a positive feature that helped illustrate engineering dynamics. Game-based learning communities, organised around tutor groups, were seen as an excellent way of encouraging an element of competition in a small non-threatening environment while discussion forums based around Moodle provided efficient support for the large group of 160 students. Finally, learning through ‘doing’ in a game environment was proven to be a successful method of illustrating physical phenomena

Problem Based Learning and its use on the Automotive Engineering Design Course at Coventry University

The Automotive Engineering Design course at Coventry University has been in operation since October 1989 and has earned a reputation for creating able engineers well prepared for industry. When originally conceived, a problem led approach to learning was adopted across the course. This approach best enables the course objectives to be satisfied. However, there is nothing new about problem-based learning for engineering design educators but for our engineering science colleagues a degree of novelty has been encountered by this approach. But is the success of the course purely down to this teaching and learning approach? This paper will discuss the opportunities, benefits and limitations of the problem-led approach being extended across a whole course. The paper also will address how the use of industrially defined problems in engineering design projects has been critical to the development of the course. The paper will then attempt to identify the key factors that lie behind the success of the Automotive Engineering Design course. Finally, a set of best practice guidelines for engineering design education will be presented based upon my experiences as the Course Tutor and a teacher of engineering design on this course

LEARNING MEDIA OF SIGNAL AUDIO FILTER FOR AUDIO ENGINEERING SUBJECT

This research aims to determine the design, performance, and advisability level of “Learning Media of Signal Audio Filter for Audio Engineering Subject” as a learning medium of audio engineering subjects at Audio Video Engineering department at SMKN 3 Yogyakarta. This research is a Research and Development. Object of this research is the “Learning Media of Signal Audio Filter for Audio Engineering Subject” be equipped learning module. Development steps consist of 1). Analysis, 2). Design, 3). Implementation, 4). Testing, 5). Validation, and 6). Trial usage. The method to collect the data consist of 1). Testing and observation of performance, 2). Questionnaire research. The media validation involving two experts learning media and two experts learning materials and usage trials conducted by 33 students. The results show that the performance of “Learning Media of Signal Audio Filter for Audio Engineering Subject”is fit for purpose as a learning medium of audio filter. Test results of AFG circuit can produce output signal with three waveforms are sine, sawtooth and a square with a frequency between 10 Hz-30 KHz. Circuit frequency counter can count frequencies between 10 Hz-25 KHz and amplitude can be read with a range between 0.3 Vp-p-10 Vp-p. Each filter circuit board can work well in frequency range between 20 Hz-20 KHz. The results validate the content of the learning material experts get a level of validity with the percentage of 81.77% with a very decent category. The validation of the construct by expert learning media get the level of validity with the percentage of 87.5% to the category of very decent. While in used test by students in SMK N 3 Yogyakarta a validity of 78.5% to the category of very decent. Keywords: media, learning, filters, audio signal