Although some engineering instructors have adopted active learning in their teaching, many have not because they anticipate experiencing student resistance to it. This research paper explores how students resist active learning. As part of ongoing research, we have developed a survey instrument, the Student Response to Instructional Practices (StRIP) Survey, to measure undergraduate engineering students’ resistance to active learning. While our other publications describe the instrument development procedures in more detail, the purpose of this paper is to understand how students in traditional and active learning classrooms respond differently to the survey questions. At a large public institution in the Southwestern United States, we studied three undergraduate engineering courses. One course in mechanical engineering served as the traditional course (n = 67 students), while the two other courses in electrical (n = 31) and mechanical engineering (n = 53) incorporated active learning (one used primarily group problem solving, while the other incorporated individual problem solving). Using quantitative methods, we conducted a Kruskal-Wallis test to determine if there were statistically significant differences between student responses in the three courses. Post-hoc testing determined which courses were statistically significantly different from each other for each survey item. The StRIP Survey successfully differentiated the two active learning courses (individual-level and group-level active learning). The StRIP Survey data also suggested that, on average, students respond positively to in-class activities and do not appear resistant. The StRIP Survey will continue to be used in more active learning classrooms, and future work will model student resistance.
Kevin Nguyen is currently a Ph.D. student in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education department at University of Texas at Austin. He has a B.S. and M.Eng in Environmental Engineering both from Texas Tech University. As an engineering education researcher, he has worked on projects regarding self-reflection, teamwork, active learning, and participatory science communities.
Maura Borrego is the E.P. Schoch Professor in Engineering, Director of the Center for Engineering Education and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and STEM Education at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Borrego is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and currently serves as Senior Associate Editor for Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. She was previously a rotating program officer at the National Science Foundation, a Vice President and member of the Board of the American Society for Engineering Education, an associate dean in the graduate school, Deputy Editor of the Journal of Engineering Education and Associate Editor for International Journal of STEM Education. Her research awards include U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and two outstanding publication awards from the American Educational Research Association for her journal articles.
Dr. Cynthia Finelli is Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Research Associate Professor of Education, and Founding Director of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering at the University of Michigan. Her research areas include student resistance to active learning, faculty adoption of evidence-based teaching practices, and institutional change. She is a fellow in the American Society of Engineering Education, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Education, and past chair of the Educational Research and Methods Division of ASEE.
Prateek Shekhar is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His research is focused in understanding students’ and faculty’s reaction to adoption of active learning based teaching methods in engineering classrooms. He holds a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California and B.S. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India.
Matt DeMonbrun is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education (CSHPE) in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. His research interests include college student development theory and teaching practices and how they relate to student learning outcomes in engineering education.
Charles Henderson, PhD, is a Professor at Western Michigan University (WMU), with a joint appointment between the Physics Department and the WMU Mallinson Institute for Science Education. He is the co-founder and co-director of the WMU Center for Research on Instructional Change in Postsecondary Education (CRICPE). His research program focuses on understanding and promoting instructional change in higher education, with an emphasis on improving undergraduate STEM instruction (see http://homepages.wmich.edu/~chenders/ for details). In spring 2010, he was a Fulbright Scholar with the Finnish Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Dr. Henderson was a member of the National Research Council Committee on Undergraduate Physics Education Research and Implementation and is the senior editor for the journal Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research.
Dr. Michael Prince is a professor of chemical engineering at Bucknell University and co-director of the National Effective Teaching Institute. His research examines a range of engineering education topics, including how to assess and repair student misco
Dr. Cynthia Waters is an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering and she specializes in porous metals for biological and transportation applications, and engineering education. Dr. Waters’ research expertise is in the creation and characterization of metallic foams and porous metals for the future of applications ranging from space exploration to biomedical implants. These metals display a high density to strength ratio and improved ability for energy absorption, which leads to usefulness in many applications. Dr. Waters is also known for her engineering education efforts. She has past and current NSF funding with several facets of engineering education and these include: Assessment studies of classroom material science pedagogical implementations; Just in Time Teaching with Web-based Tools of Material Science; Case Studies in Material Science and Various Engineering Disciplines and; Engineering Faculty Barriers to Adopt Evidence-Based (or nontraditional) Teaching Methods. She has been invited to speak at conferences (MRS, MS&T, and ASEE) worldwide on the topic of Material Science education. She serves as the College of Engineering liaison to ASEE and advises the Society of Women Engineers student chapter and leads the students in developing and implementing yearly outreach events for the K-8 female community. She is author of many peer-reviewed conference proceeding and journal papers in the areas of both porous metals and engineering education.
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