A democratic and student-centred approach to facilitating teamwork learning among first-year engineering students: a learning and teaching case study

Abstract

This work examines an innovative and evolving approach to facilitating teamwork learning in a generic first-year mechanical engineering course. Principles of inclusive, student-active and democratic pedagogy were utilised to engage students on both the social and personal planes. Learner opportunities to facilitate, direct and lead the learning direction were emphasised. This emphasis encouraged a rich learning process and motivated students dismissive of the need to examine their communication skills and those who initially perceived the topic as a personal intrusion. Through a sharing of curriculum decisions, a climate of trust, ownership and shared value arose. Students chose from a range of tools across personality-type indicators, learning style indicators and hierarchies of human needs, to assist their capacity to express and discuss engineering designs and concepts. Peer teaching and collaborative exercises were incorporated to provide an authentic learning context and to further the student's sense of ownership.

A phronetic approach to educational design-based research: Issues and aspirations

“…Since its earliest days, educational design-based research was fairly committed to taking seriously that education and learning happen in specific settings. Educational design-based research has also affirmed the importance of practitioners' engagement in the very process of knowledge production (Juuti and Lavonen, 2012), as well as students (Missingham and Matthews, 2014). This is a significant difference to the evidence-based stance we have sketched out above, which relegates practitioners to a position of mere implementers of some sort of guidelines "approved" by educational scientists (see the experiential account provided by Bossman, 2015).…”

Student Management: A Philosophy of Contemporary Islamic Education

“…Equal rights then conceive equal educational services through schooling. In this system, services given are accentuated to the similarities possessed by the students (Missingham & Matthews, 2014). Education through schooling, in reality, is mass-oriented rather than the individual.…”

“…However, these similarity-based services were then criticized. The critics were heavily related to the psychological views of humans (Missingham & Matthews, 2014). Although humans are believed to have similarities, this could be proven different if scrutinized further.…”

Redesigning work in university classrooms: factors related to satisfaction in engineering and business administration students

“…Para que las tareas o actividades sean más motivadoras, éstas deben ser interesantes, significativas, relevantes, variadas y ser percibidas como parte de un proceso más global, con el que el estudiante pueda identificarse (Paris & Turner, 1994;Ames, 1992;Greene et al, 2004;Adler et al, 2001;Bloom, Yorges & Ruhl, 2000;Ünal & Inan, 2010;Tirado, Santos & Tejero-Díez, 2013). Además, si las actividades son realizadas cooperativamente, trabajando de forma efectiva con compañeros, el contexto es más motivador y el estudiante percibe una mayor auto-eficacia (Greene et al, 2004;Ünal & Inan, 2010;Ames, 1992;McCarthy & Anderson, 2000;Missingham & Matthews, 2014;Martínez-Caro & Campuzano Bolarín, 2011).…”