Mapping the implementation of active learning approaches in a school of engineering – the positive effect of teacher training

ABSTRACT

This study aims to propose a method for mapping the implementation of active learning approaches by quantifying engineering teachers’ self-perception. It also seeks to examine the correlations between the implementation of active learning approaches and training, as well as publications focused on active learning. To conduct the study, active learning concepts were defined, and a set of approaches were selected for consideration in the survey. A questionnaire was developed to collect data, which was completed by teachers of 246 courses from 14 engineering programs within a school of engineering. The findings revealed that only 11% of the courses studied did not implement any active learning approach. Project-Based Learning emerged as the most implemented approach, which aligns with the context of the engineering school. Additionally, positive correlations were found between training and the implementation of active learning approaches. This work makes contributions both to the theory, as it presents a way for measuring the perceived implementation of active learning approaches and the correlation with training and publications, and for institutional policy, as it shows the importance of training for that same implementation.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering education
• active learning
• project-based learning
• teacher training effect
• engineering teaching staff

Acknowledgements

We thank all respondents for supporting the questionnaire application.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia with grants no UIDB/00319/2020, UIDB/05256/2020 and UIDB/04872/2020.

Notes on contributors

Rui M. Lima

Rui M. Lima is an Associate Professor at the Department of Production and Systems and a Member of the ALGORITMI / LASI Research Centre of the School of Engineering of the University of Minho, Portugal. His main research interests are in Industrial Engineering and Management fields: Production and Project Management; Lean Production; Agile Project Management; Lean Healthcare; Engineering Education; Project-Based Learning (PBL); and University-Business Cooperation (UBC). He has been collaborating on international projects with universities from Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. He has been developing editorial work in collaboration with several journals, is the author of more than two hundred peer-reviewed papers in journals, book chapters and conferences, and has one patent.

Valquíria Villas-Boas

Valquíria Villas-Boas is a visiting professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in the Graduate Program in Physics Teaching. Her main research interests are Active Learning in STEM, Physics and STEM Teaching, Engineering Education, Teacher Education and Teacher Training, and Women in STEM. She has a B.S., M.S. and PhD in physics from the University of São Paulo (USP). Her M.S. and PhD theses dealt with magnetic and structural properties of hard magnetic materials. Before working at UFRGS, she was an assistant professor at the University of São Paulo, University of San Diego, Evergreen Valley College and a full professor at the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS). She has been teaching basic physics to engineering students and physics students for almost 30 years. She has been working with active learning in STEM for the last 25 years.

Filomena Soares

Filomena Soares received her degree in Chemical Engineering in 1986, her Msc in in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial Automation profile, in 1991, and her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1997, all at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal. Since 1992 she works in the Industrial Electronics Department of the School of Engineering of the University of Minho, and she develops her research work in R&D Algoritmi Centre. Her main scientific interests are in the areas of System Modeling and Control, with application to biomedical processes and in the area of automation systems. Motor and cognitive rehabilitation has been receiving her attention, using serious games and robots to foster communication with impaired children/adults. She is interested in new teaching/learning methodologies, in particular blended-learning and virtual and remote laboratories.

Olga S. Carneiro

Olga S. Carneiro is an Associate Professor, with Habilitation, at the Department of Polymer Engineering, as well as a Member of the Institute for Polymers and Composites (IPC) research centre, at the School of Engineering of the University of Minho, Portugal. Her main research interests include polymer processing and product development. In the last years, her research focused on 3D printing, profile extrusion dies and calibrators design, and the development of films for food packaging. She collaborated on projects with direct funding from several National and International companies and has been a member of the research team/Principal Investigator of several scientific projects funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) and co-funded projects carried out with industry. She edited two books and is the author/co-author of fourteen book chapters, eighty-five papers published in international refereed journals, four patents and almost two hundred communications presented at international conferences.

Paulo Ribeiro

Paulo Ribeiro is an Assistant Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minho and a member of the School Council of the School of Engineering at the University of Minho. Between 2013 and 2019 he was Deputy Director (Executive Committee) and is currently a member of the Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction (CTAC). He finished his PhD in 2011 at the University of Minho and, since then, he has been working in Sustainable Mobility, Decarbonization of Urban Mobility, and Innovation in Cities Management. He has participated in several scientific committees of international conferences and collaborated with the editorial boards of several international journals on the review of scientific articles. He has supervised three PhD forty Master theses and is currently supervising five ongoing PhD theses. He has authored or co-authored more than a hundred scientific publications, including three patents, forty papers in international journals, two international book chapters and seventeen invited lectures (two keynotes).

Diana Mesquita

Diana Mesquita is an Assistant Professor at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and a member of the Research Centre for Human Development (CEDH) of the Faculty of Education and Psychology, Porto, Portugal. Her research interests include Competency-Based Curriculum; Active Learning; Project-Based Learning; Teacher Learning; Professional Development; Higher Education; and Engineering Education. She participated in several national and international projects, with partners from Brazil, Poland, Thailand, Denmark, Ireland, Turkey, Lithuania, and The Netherlands, amongst others. She is engaging in organizing national and international conferences and has more than ninety publications of articles in international journals, book chapters and scientific events.