Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Education

Understanding Student Motivation: A Key To Effective Curriculum Design, Jonathan Stolk Jun 2014

Understanding Student Motivation: A Key To Effective Curriculum Design, Jonathan Stolk

Jonathan Stolk

This chapter explores student motivation as a potential key to the success of today's college curricula. It argues that curriculum designers and instructors could benefit from developing a more nuanced view of motivation - one that extends beyond the labeling of individuals as "motivated" or "unmotivated." Designing curricula that help students develop self-motivation for learning is an achievable goal, but one that involves several steps. First, instructors need to change their thinking about motivation and develop the knowledge to more accurately characterize student motivational responses. Second, instructors need to develop the ability to explain how classroom variables link to specific …


The Impacts Of Societal Context On Student Motivation And Engagement, Jonathan Stolk Sep 2013

The Impacts Of Societal Context On Student Motivation And Engagement, Jonathan Stolk

Jonathan Stolk

Promoting a sense of societal connectedness is critical in today’s engineering educational environment. The NAE’s Grand Challenges for Engineering point to broad human concerns — sustainability, health, vulnerability, and joy of living — and human connectivity as the future of engineering problem solving. Engineering studies, however, are often presented in a completely decontextualized manner, with an emphasis on technical content that is free of any human meaning. As a result, students may have difficulty identifying either personal or societal value in their learning tasks. Through their course design, instructors can help students situate themselves and their engineering learning experiences within …


Work In Progress - A Provisional Competency Assessment System, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra, Jonathan Chambers, Ellen Cooney, Kristen Dorsey, John Geddes, Gill Pratt, Kathryn Rivard, Ann Schaffner, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Stephen Westwood, Yevgeniya Zastavker Jul 2012

Work In Progress - A Provisional Competency Assessment System, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra, Jonathan Chambers, Ellen Cooney, Kristen Dorsey, John Geddes, Gill Pratt, Kathryn Rivard, Ann Schaffner, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Stephen Westwood, Yevgeniya Zastavker

Jonathan Stolk

Over the last two years Olin College has been defining and implementing a provisional system to develop and assess student competency levels. The system particularly emphasizes the importance of creating a community of practice that includes not only faculty but also staff and students. In this paper we provide an overview of the design process, and comment on the results of our first year of implementing the system.


Drowning In Method, Thirsty For Values: A Call For Cultural Inquiry, Jonathan Stolk, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra Jul 2012

Drowning In Method, Thirsty For Values: A Call For Cultural Inquiry, Jonathan Stolk, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra

Jonathan Stolk

A decade or more has passed since publication of most calls for reform in engineering education. In the ensuing time, there has been significant work on the design, implementation, and transferability of appropriate methodsand techniques - accompanied by, in most cases, little discussion of the values and beliefs of the people involved. But many theories of change rely on a fundamental shift in human beliefs and values, and purport that institutionalization of methods is impossible without this shift. Given this, now may be a reasonable time to re-visit the questions: What are the values of people involved in engineering education, …