Prediction and Reflection Activities in a Chemical Engineering Course: Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer

Abstract

This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative study for discovering how written reflective exercises following in-class prediction activities enhance learning gains in a heat and mass transfer course for chemical engineering undergraduate students. The primary purpose of this research is to determine if and to what extent written reflection plays a role in adjusting commonly-held misconceptions students have about heat and mass transfer. To study this, three 30-minute prediction activities were planned throughout a ten-week course. The study participants included two sections of a course with approximately 20 junior-level chemical engineering students each. Based on their course section, students were broken into two groups. One group was asked to complete a follow-up reflection assignment after each prediction activity, guiding them through the reflective process, while the other group completed no structured follow-up reflection activity. The HECI (Heat and Energy Concept Inventory) was administered to students of all sections at the start and the end of the course. The HECI was used to evaluate learning gains. Archived data from classes with no prediction activities and no reflection activities served as a control group. Correlations between quantitative assessment performance and student group (prediction activities and practicing reflection, prediction activities only, no prediction and no reflection) are discussed. To explore if the quality of reflection is related to learning gains, student reflections were ranked according to a validated rubric and compared with data on learning gains. Additionally, to further understand how students' perception of learning is affected by these activities, a focus group of 5 students was organized and interviewed in a semi-structured format after the conclusion of the course. Key insights from the qualitative interviews are discussed. The goal of this work in progress is to aid in directing the role of prediction and reflection activities in future courses. IntroductionThe motivation for this work is driven by the conclusions that that even after successful completion of college-level engineering courses, some students still hold common misconceptions about heat and mass transfer. This has been documented in the form of postinstruction assessments, such as concept inventories, that target assessing conceptual knowledge. Beyond calculations and problem-solving, conceptual knowledge seems particularly difficult to adjust using traditional classroom techniques. This study explores the use of reflective activities in combination with prediction activities to better understand if and how reflection plays a role in shifting conceptual knowledge of heat and mass transfer.The theoretical foundations for this study include literature on conceptual change, inductivelearning as a form of active-learning, and reflection. This literature review will give a brief overview of conceptual change and inductive-learning, but will focus on reflection, particularly in the contex...

Frontier: Discipline-Based Education Research to Advance Authentic Learning in Agricultural and Biological Engineering

“…While some uses of reflection are not surprising, such as the development of ethical reasoning (Kisselburgh et al, 2016) and enhancing leadership competencies (Hendricks et al, 2018), other uses of reflection are emerging in a less likely place in the engineering curriculum: in foundational engineering science courses. For instance, reflection has been used to adjust students' commonly held misconceptions about heat and mass transfer (Chenette and Ribera, 2016) and help improve computer science students' detection of faults in software (Goswami and Walia, 2016).…”

Can structured reflection enhance learning in a heat and mass transfer course?

“…While the working hypothesis is that students who exhibited more critical reflection, thus making strides to adapt and change their way of thinking, were the students with the highest normalized learning gains, preliminary work was inconclusive 1 . It was shown that for Activity 1, there was "a weak correlation between the normalized gain score of individual students in this category and the level of reflection displayed by each student in the follow-up activity"…”

“…A detailed literature review of these subjects can be found in a previously published work-in-progress ASEE paper (Chenette and Ribera, 2016) 1 .…”

“…The primary purpose of this research is to determine to what extent written reflection activities are successful at adjusting commonly-held misconceptions students have about heat transfer.As described in a previous ASEE paper ( Chenette and Ribera, 2016), the authors conducted a series of prediction activities in several course sections, each with approximately 25 junior-level chemical engineering students, with either a structured follow-up reflection assignment or no structured reflection assignment after each prediction activity. The Heat and Energy Concept Inventory (HECI) was administered to students of all sections at the start and the end of the course.…”

Work In Progress: Professional Development Through High-Impact Experiences

“…It has been evidenced that participation in high-impact experiences can be life-changing for students [4]. Assessment of high-impact experiences is routinely accomplished using summative critical reflection [5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”