A WPI study explores whether experiential education produces self-directed
students.
Academics often “teach their research,” but few “research
their teaching,” at least formally, for a host of good reasons,
not least being the investment required to become conversant in
theories and methodologies outside one’s primary academic
community. However, with rapid change in the practice of engineering
spurring new educational requirements and approaches to teaching,
there is ample opportunity and need for those interested in educational
research to provide insight into effective pedagogy.
At Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), much of our teaching
is connected with the Global Perspective Program, an experiential
learning program that has third-year students conducting intensive,
interdisciplinary research projects for sponsoring organizations
in Puerto Rico, Thailand, Australia, Namibia, England and other
places worldwide. The goals of the program are ambitious, among
them developing student capacity to research real, open-ended challenges
at the interface of technology and society and in the process to
develop capacities for teamwork, written and oral communication,
critical thinking and cross-cultural appreciation and collaboration.
 A
large cohort of some 350 global program student participants per
year provides ample opportunity to better understand this primarily
inductively-taught, constructivist learning process. We recently
completed research assessing whether the program effectively develops
student capacity in a number of these areas so as to prepare them
to become self-directed, lifelong learners (SDLL).
The research process generated insight into educational programming
and research methodology, and helped us see new opportunities as
teachers to support student development.
Anything as complex and inherently prospective as student capacity
for SDLL raises methodological challenges. We addressed these challenges
through a triangulated research protocol involving two widely used
instruments for student self-assessment of learning and growth,
and one instrument based on independent faculty review of student
work.
The results suggested strong student development on key SDLL-related
capacities. However, some indicators were less emphatic than others,
depending on the instrument. One concern is that some highly self-directed
learners entering the program are at risk for regression, as may
be students at non-English-speaking locations. Because self-directed
and life-long learning are complex psycho-social phenomena, and
because our triangulated research strategy depended on three overlapping
but not directly comparable methods, divergent findings might result
from how the tests were administered, how SDL is operationalized
in each, or both.
The results raised important questions about the relationships
among our ambitious learning goals, student preparation, context,
sojourn length, persistent effects, and program structure. The results
have implications for assessing the effectiveness of innovative
educational programs designed to meet non-technical learning objectives
that are increasingly recognized as essential elements in engineering
education.
The research has also contributed to changes in how we prepare
and advise students through their project experience. For one, the
possibility that intensive, cross-cultural, open-ended project work
might, for a few students, reduce their confidence in undertaking
self-directed learning is something we knew was possible from other
research.This concern sensitized us to the more general need for
helping students process their experiences after the projects have
ended.
Given the uniqueness of the experience for students and the many
ways in which we hope they will grow—including in areas like
“critical thinking” that may be difficult for students
even to recognize—we believe there is valuable student learning
and development potential to be had from relatively small investments
in such post-project reflective activities as structured conversations
and short introspective essays. In implementing such strategies,
we expect also to generate new questions and devise new, practical
ways to continue educational research that complements our other
academic pursuits.
Scott Jiusto is assistant professor of geography in Interdisciplinary
and Global Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. David DiBiasio
is associate professor and department head of Chemical Engineering
at WPI. This article is adapted from “Experiential
Learning Environments: Do They Prepare Our Students to be Self-Directed,
Life-Long Learners?” in the July,
2006 JEE.
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