‘Not hard to sway’: a case study of student engagement in two large engineering classes

ABSTRACT

Although engineering education research has empirically validated the effectiveness of active learning in improving student learning over traditional lecture-based methods, the adoption of active learning in classrooms has been slow. One of the greatest reported barriers is student resistance towards engagement in active learning exercises. This paper argues that the level of student engagement in active learning classrooms is an interplay of social and physical classroom characteristics. Using classroom observations and instructor interviews, this study describes the influence of the interaction of student response systems and classroom layout on student engagement in two large active-learning-based engineering classrooms. The findings suggest that the use of different student response systems in combination with cluster-style seating arrangements can increase student engagement in large classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• Active learning
• case study
• classroom
• engagement
• qualitative

Acknowledgements

The opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the National Science Foundation. The authors would like to thank the instructors and students who agreed to be observed, Geoffrey Herman who provided suggestions assisting this work and our research team for their support and guidance: Michael Prince, Matt DeMonbrun, Cynthia Finelli, Charles Henderson and Cynthia Waters.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Prateek Shekhar is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of Michigan. His research is focused on evaluation of the adoption of research-based pedagogies and education programs in engineering classrooms. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Texas - Austin, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California, and a B.S. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India.

Maura Borrego is Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. Her current research interests include change in higher education, faculty use of non-traditional instructional strategies and interdisciplinary collaboration among graduate students and academics. She is Deputy Editor of the Journal of Engineering Education and Chair of Professional Interest Council IV for the American Society for Engineering Education. Maura Borrego holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison, all in materials science and engineering.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Division of Undergraduate Education, U.S. National Science Foundation: [Grant Number 1500309].