Service Learning with a Gender Perspective: Reconnecting Service-Learning with Feminist Research and Pedagogy in Sociology

Service learning (SL) is growing in our universities and in Spain. However, still much action and research are needed with a gender perspective. This article aims to evaluate an SL project that consisted of workshops in schools on gender and technology. We evaluated the experience with a mixed-methods approach and a gender perspective. This includes qualitative self-reports of 19 university students of sociology of gender as well as quantitative surveys completed by the 284 school students and 13 of their teachers. Our results indicate a great satisfaction among university students as well as the schools. This SL experience helped our university students to acquire specific knowledge regarding gender and social issues as well as several skills, especially communication, organization, empathy, critical thinking, and social and gender awareness and responsibility. Therefore, we conclude that such experiences show a great potential for learning as well as for social and gender transformations

Aprendizaje Servicio, Género y TIC. De la desigualdad de género en las TIC a la generación de vocaciones tecnológicas en el ámbito educativo

Pese a los esfuerzos de las últimas décadas, las desigualdades de género en el acceso a los estudios y trabajos TIC persisten. Aunque la exclusión de las mujeres de las TIC responde a múltiples causas, la investigación coincide en la necesidad de despertar el interés y generar más vocaciones tecnológicas entre las chicas desde edades escolares y, con ello, incrementar el número de estudiantes y trabajadoras TIC en el futuro. Para dar respuesta a esta necesidad diseñamos e implementamos un proyecto de Aprendizaje Servicio (ApS) en el ámbito de la Sociología del Género en Barcelona. El proyecto consistía en llevar a cabo conferencias-taller en torno al género y la tecnología para las escuelas y trabajar cuestiones de desigualdad de género, socialización de género y visibilización de las mujeres en las TIC, así como, vías para acceder a ellas. En este artículo nos proponemos exponer la experiencia de 4 cursos consecutivos y sus principales resultados. Para su descripción y evaluación aplicamos una metodología mixta, cuantitativa y cualitativa. Contamos, por un lado, con los informes de autoreflexión de nuestro alumnado universitario participante y por el otro, con las encuestas a 284 escolares y a sus profesores. Aunque con algunas limitaciones, la experiencia ha sido muy satisfactoria, tanto para el profesorado como para los alumnados participantes. Los resultados muestran que el ApS en perspectiva de género tiene un gran potencial para el aprendizaje, así como, para la transformación social y de género

Student Expectations: The effect of student background and experience

CONTEXT The perspectives and previous experiences that students bring to their programs of study can affect their approaches to study and the depth of learning that they achieve Prosser & Trigwell, 1999; Ramsden, 2003). Graduate outcomes assume the attainment of welldeveloped independent learning skills which can be transferred to the work-place. PURPOSE This 5-year longitudinal study investigates factors influencing students’ approaches to learning in the fields of Engineering, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, at two higher education institutes delivering programs of various levels in Australia and New Zealand. The study aims to track the development of student approaches to learning as they progress through their program. Through increased understanding of students’ approaches, faculty will be better able to design teaching and learning strategies to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. This paper reports on the first stage of the project. APPROACH In August 2017, we ran a pilot of our survey using the Revised Study Process Questionnaire(Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001) and including some additional questions related to student demographics and motivation for undertaking their current program of study. Data were analysed to evaluate the usefulness of data collected and to understand the demographics of the student cohort. Over the period of the research, data will be collected using the questionnaire and through focus groups and interviews. RESULTS Participants provided a representative sample, and the data collected was reasonable, allowing the questionnaire design to be confirmed. CONCLUSIONS At this preliminary stage, the study has provided insight into the student demographics at both institutes and identified aspects of students’ modes of engagement with learning. Some areas for improvement of the questionnaire have been identified, which will be implemented for the main body of the study

A new strategy for active learning to maximise performance in intensive courses

This paper describes an innovation in the delivery of an introductory thermodynamics course offered to students studying towards an engineering qualification. The course was delivered in intensive format, across three weeks of study. Students find it challenging to engage with complex engineering topics in a short period of time, and there is no sizeable study break for pre-exam study. This means that students cannot afford to delay in learning and applying content. Every class must be an opportunity to interact with the content immediately. The innovation described here involved implementing a new daily structure for the course that attempted to mimic the standard process by which students learn material, apply it, study it and practice it in across a traditional-length semester. The new structure involved integrating the lecture and recitation components to the course to increasing the active learning during material delivery, then allowing students to engage in guided study and open-book formative assessment. This paper describes the implementation of this innovation. A brief review of the literature on intensive courses is provided, followed by a description of the approach used in this particular class. The results are then presented, and evaluated in the context of the research and the instructor’s own critical reflection

Chair a session/Integration of theory and practice in the learning and teaching process

The theme for AAEE-2017 is “Integrated Engineering”, which covers a range of sub-themes, such as: Integration of theory and practice in the learning and teaching process Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary engineering programs and learning environments Integration of teaching and research in the engineering training process The role and impact of engineering students and educators in the wider community Systems perspectives on engineering education. Integration is also about connections, e.g. between students and teachers, between students in learning together, and between educational institutions and industry and wider society in the engineering education process