Development and Evaluation of Fishbone-Based Advanced Computational Thinking (FACT) Pedagogy: A Teacher-Student Collaborative Learning Environment in Engineering and Science Education

Abstract

In this article, Fishbone-based advanced computational thinking (FACT) pedagogy is proposed by fusing fishbone pedagogy and computational thinking pedagogy for enhancing teaching-learning process while teaching engineering and science courses, for engineering and science students respectively. The proposed FACT pedagogy has been implemented using the concept of X-ray machine in biomedical instrumentation course and biomolecules, in biochemistry course. Using fishbone approach, various components of X-ray machine in biomedical course and the components of biomolecules in biochemistry course are visually explained as ribs and riblets of a fishbone diagram, without coining the keywords X-ray and biomolecules in an engineering institution and science institution respectively. Finally, the targeted concept is arrived and explained. Similarly, the same concepts of X-ray and biomolecules are coined among students and they are asked to divide or decompose the concepts into sub-concepts separately. To implement and evaluate the proposed pedagogy, an engineering institution and a science institution have been selected and evaluation results have been published in this article. In this pedagogical approach, the same complex concept is taught as a backward thinking by the teacher using fishbone pedagogy and forward thinking by the students using computational thinking pedagogy. This combined approach helps students to understand any complex concept in science courses. Also, it helps the teachers to easily convey and embed the same among the student community while teaching science courses.