Dr. Z's Reflections on Research
Saturday, January 31, 2004
I will be writing an article on the learning styles of engineering students and the best ways to address their needs.
My research questions will be:
1) Is there a predominant learning style for engineering students?
2) If so, is there any difference between the various fields including chemical, mechanical, and civil?
3) What are the best ways to address these students' needs?
4) Do present engineering courses present information in ways that best support their students' needs?
I believe the descriptors I will need are:
learning styles and engineering students.
I used these two descriptors and found 7 articles.
I used the ERIC thesaurus to see if ERIC uses learning style and turns out it uses Cognitive style. It also listed Learning Strategies, Learning theories (probably not useful). I also saw Experiential Learning and Active Learning which will be useful when trying to pinpoint specific types of strategies. I decided to address Gardner's work and checked the term, Multiple Intelligences. Turns out it is an actual term used by ERIC.
I began my ERIC search by searching on each of these topics. This way, I be able to use the Search History process to combine these searches as needed.
Having a tough time downloading these ERIC ED documents from home so I will have to wait until I get to the library and see if it works any better.
Well, I forgot about the paper I need to submit for the ARCEE conference. It is due on Feb 15. This means that I must change my emphasis for a few weeks. This paper will be one dealing with learning styles of engineering students and how to best address them.
Friday, January 30, 2004
It's amazing how much I am learning about portfolios and alternative assessment. I have read and spoken on professional portfolios but student portfolios are a different animal. The books I have read are not saying much about students writing reflections but it seems to me that reflections are the parts that make a portfolio important.
The biggest problem with researching is that you realize how much you don't know. Maybe ignorance IS bliss.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Well, here it is. I have opened a blog for reflecting on my research process. I am in the middle, no at the beginning, of writing a chapter about using e-portfolios as alternative forms of assessment. I was asked by Dr. Roberto Muffoletto about 1.5 years ago to begin work on this project for his Breaking the Walls. In this book, he is inviting experts to write about alternative forms of assessment that could/should be used instead of standardized testing.
Should be fun.
i am sitting in my cubicle in the library surrounded with books about assessment. It is obvious that I need to do a great deal of reading about assessment for this chapter. Assessment needs to be the premise for these writings. After laying the foundation about assessment, alternative assessment and ?? I will be able to discuss e-folios, their application and integration into the student assessment process.
It is quite obvious that my plan for writing on Wednesdays between Ed Media classes will be insufficient. I will have to add Thursday mornings and probably Monday mornings. I hope that is enough.
