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Full-Text Articles in Education

En Route To Lifelong Learning? Academic Motivations, Goal Orientations And Learning Conceptions Of Entering First-Year Engineering Students, Jonathan Stolk, Katherine Chen, Robert Martello, Roberta Herter, Taylor Lobe, Boris Taratutin Oct 2012

En Route To Lifelong Learning? Academic Motivations, Goal Orientations And Learning Conceptions Of Entering First-Year Engineering Students, Jonathan Stolk, Katherine Chen, Robert Martello, Roberta Herter, Taylor Lobe, Boris Taratutin

Jonathan Stolk

Although lifelong learning is among the most critical skills required of today's engineering graduates, the complex processes through which individuals develop the attitudes, beliefs, and skills of lifelong learners remains unclear. Instructors have only begun to understand the impacts of academic background, institutional climate, and pedagogy on students' development of the motivations and learning strategies characteristic of lifelong learners. In this ongoing mixed-methods investigation, we draw on existing motivation and self-regulated learning theories to examine how undergraduate students at a small private college and a large public university become more self-directed as they progress through the first two years of …


Work In Progress - Using Video And Self-Reflection To Enhance Undergraduate Teams, Nick Tatar, Debbie Chachra, Yevgeniya Zastavker, Jonathan Stolk Jul 2012

Work In Progress - Using Video And Self-Reflection To Enhance Undergraduate Teams, Nick Tatar, Debbie Chachra, Yevgeniya Zastavker, Jonathan Stolk

Jonathan Stolk

Engineers today must be able to communicate and collaborate in teams. They also must be comfortable making adjustments within the team to maintain flow and progress toward project goals. With these goals in mind, students in a first-semester engineering seminar course were asked to videotape a team meeting in their design course and to write a self-reflection paper after viewing their video. After analyzing the video, students were asked to provide clear suggestions in their self-reflection paper for improving their own and their team's performance. Our preliminary analysis showed that video-supported reflections: 1) may be more effective than memory for …


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, …


Implementation Of Paul Revere: Tough As Nails, An Integrated Project-Based Course On Materials Science And History Of Technology, Jonathan Stolk, Robert Martello Apr 2012

Implementation Of Paul Revere: Tough As Nails, An Integrated Project-Based Course On Materials Science And History Of Technology, Jonathan Stolk, Robert Martello

Jonathan Stolk

Olin College sophomores participate in integrated course blocks that merge technical content with business, arts, humanities, and social science topics, allowing students to work on engineering projects that have broader implications than the purely technical. In this paper, we present Paul Revere: Tough as Nails, a multidisciplinary course block that combines an introductory materials science course with a history of technology course and a large scale project. In Paul Revere, students explore connections between historical and technological materials science developments through examinations of Paul Revere's metallurgical work and analyses of the relevant social, environmental, political, and economic aspects that contribute …


Converting Traditional Materials Labs To Project-Based Learning Experiences: Aiding Students' Development Of Higher-Order Cognitive Skills, Jonathan Stolk, Linda Vanasupa, Katherine Chen, Richard Savage, Trevor Harding, Blair London, William Hughes Apr 2012

Converting Traditional Materials Labs To Project-Based Learning Experiences: Aiding Students' Development Of Higher-Order Cognitive Skills, Jonathan Stolk, Linda Vanasupa, Katherine Chen, Richard Savage, Trevor Harding, Blair London, William Hughes

Jonathan Stolk

Against a backdrop of compelling societal needs, graduates in science and engineering now must master their disciplines and demonstrate a sophisticated level of cognitive, affective and social development. This has lead a number of national and international commissions on science and engineering to urge educators to re-think the way in which STEM disciplines are taught. We have chosen to “repackage” a traditional undergraduate materials engineering curriculum in a form designed to promote the development of higher-order cognitive skills like self-directed learning and design. Classic metallurgy experiments have been converted to project-based learning experiences where students are put in the role …


The Olin Curriculum: Thinking Toward The Future, Mark Somerville, David Anderson, Hillary Berbeco, John Bourne, Jill Crisman, Diana Dabby, Helen Donis-Keller, Stephen Holt, Sherra Kerns, David Kerns, Jr., Robert Martello, Richard Miller, Michael Moody, Gill Pratt, Joanne Pratt, Christina Shea, Stephen Schiffman, Sarah Spence Adams, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Brian Storey, Burt Tilley, Benjamin Vandiver, Yevgeniya Zastavker Mar 2012

The Olin Curriculum: Thinking Toward The Future, Mark Somerville, David Anderson, Hillary Berbeco, John Bourne, Jill Crisman, Diana Dabby, Helen Donis-Keller, Stephen Holt, Sherra Kerns, David Kerns, Jr., Robert Martello, Richard Miller, Michael Moody, Gill Pratt, Joanne Pratt, Christina Shea, Stephen Schiffman, Sarah Spence Adams, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Brian Storey, Burt Tilley, Benjamin Vandiver, Yevgeniya Zastavker

Jonathan Stolk

In 1997, the F. W. Olin Foundation of New York established the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Needham, MA, with the mission of creating an engineering school for the 21st century. Over the last five years, the college has transformed from an idea to a functioning entity that admitted its first freshman class in fall 2002. This paper describes the broad outlines of the Olin curriculum with some emphasis on the electrical and computer engineering degree. The curriculum incorporates the best practices from many other institutions as well as new ideas and approaches in an attempt to address the …


Special Session - Incorporating Values: A User-Oriented Approach To Curriculum Design, Mark Somerville, John Geddes, Benjamin Linder, Ozgur Eris, Jonathan Stolk Mar 2012

Special Session - Incorporating Values: A User-Oriented Approach To Curriculum Design, Mark Somerville, John Geddes, Benjamin Linder, Ozgur Eris, Jonathan Stolk

Jonathan Stolk

Curriculum development efforts often focus on delineating content within associated constraints: "how can I/we best design a course to cover a set of topics in the time available?". Such an approach is clearly productive, but it can easily lose sight of the people involved and their values. In this interactive session, we explore the importance of being explicit about the people participating in learning experiences. We done this by introducing the use of user-oriented design techniques in curriculum design, and by involving participants in aspects of these techniques.


The Effect Of Different Active Learning Environments On Student Outcomes Related To Lifelong Learning, Susan Lord, Michael Prince, Candice Stefanou, Jonathan Stolk, John Chen Dec 2011

The Effect Of Different Active Learning Environments On Student Outcomes Related To Lifelong Learning, Susan Lord, Michael Prince, Candice Stefanou, Jonathan Stolk, John Chen

Jonathan Stolk

Calls for educational reform emphasize the need for students to develop a capacity for lifelong learning. Lifelong learners may be characterized as curious, motivated, reflective, analytical, persistent, flexible, and independent—traits that are critical for success in today’s globalized economy. Stakeholders in engineering education recognize that students’ development of the capacity for lifelong learning is vital for their success and that instructors play a critical role in influencing such outcomes. However, there is a critical lack of research in this area. This research investigates how instructor choices of active learning pedagogies affect student outcomes related to their development as lifelong learners …