Case Based Reasoning For Engineering Statistics

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the formulation and early results of research supported by the National Science Foundation's Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division (DELOS). Using findings from cognitive science, we discuss the design of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that utilizes case-based reasoning (CBR) to scaffold undergraduate engineering students in their learning of introductory probability and statistics. Such a system will: Assist students in extracting the underlying common structure from engineering statistics • problems that illustrate the full range of engineering disciplines. Allow the students to generate, customize, and change a virtually infinite collection of • exercises that can be solved with the assistance of the ITS. The students can explore the effect of changes to solutions. Help students formulate and solve "practical" and "open-ended" problems, a skill stressed by • the ABET Engineering Criteria.

Critical Thinking in Manufacturing Engineering Education

“…A variety of ASEE papers utilized critical thinking as a tool to improve student critical reasoning and thinking, and learning in fluid intelligence [5], case-based reasoning for engineering statistics [6], assessing cognitive reasoning and learning in mechanics [7], employing Socratic pedagogy to improve student's critical reasoning skills [8], and comparison of question-based and reasoning-based design [9]. A good number of papers target freshmen students while most are about a specific engineering subject, but not so much for a discipline like manufacturing.…”