The phenomenon of learning: first year engineering students' engagement with chemistry supplemental instruction.
Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study explores first year Engineering students' engagement in chemistry Supplemental Instruction sessions at a tertiary institution in South Africa.It offers insight into an institutional programme that attempts to provide support structures for Engineering students through the introduction of Supplemental Instruction (SI) as an approach to improve the quality of chemistry teaching and learning.SI is an academic support programme based on collaborative learning principles.The study researches the role of Supplemental Instruction within first year Chemistry and its implications for teaching and learning in higher education.Its specific focus is on engineering students' engagement in constructing an understanding of stoichiometry concepts within the SI sessions.The critical question that guided the study concerns how and why first year engineering students engage in the chemistry SI environment in the way that they do.This study makes use of a design research methodology in order to understand the engineering students' engagement within a Supplemental Instruction environment.Design research was selectively used to estimate the effectiveness of the SI intervention in engaging students with stoichiometry concepts.Two SI groups comprising students from two different engineering modules were observed and analysed over a period of 13 weeks.The research methods employed were observations through video recording, focus group interviews, individual student interviews and SI leader reflective journal entries.Fifteen SI sessions were observed and two focus group interviews were conducted, which served as the main datagathering activities related to the research questions of this study.The Phenomenon of Learning v Paideya -2011 Data revealed that student engagement in the educational social space is driven by the development of socio-scientific norms, pedagogical support and structural support.Social learning spaces encouraged explanations, conceptual understanding and reflective thinking in a collaborative learning environment.Data further suggested three broad themes describing students' engagement within the SI learning environment, viz.experiential, social and strategic engagement.Ideas from Engagement Theory and Phenomenology were borrowed to theorise the results of this study.While there is a suggestion that students acquire knowledge through learning engagement and experiential learning practices, which happen in different ways within a context of social learning spaces, it is argued that this study is significant in that, in spite of chemistry knowledge being regarded as fixed and completely isolated as a pure science having one truth, students are in fact engaged in very creative activities to get to know what they know about stoichiometry concepts.The Phenomenon of Learning vi Paideya -2011 List of Tables 2.1 Different models of representation often used in chemistry 40 4.1 Research methods used in attempting to answer critical questions 96 4.2 An Interpretative framework for analyzing individual & collective activity at the SI classroom level.97 4.3 Research instrument codes 105 5.1 Methods of higher order skills development 116 5.2 Learning Activities 119 5.3 Assessment Techniques 122 List of Figures 2.1 Different representational levels of Chemistry 36 2.2 Engaged learning model 50 3.3 Meaningful interaction in Social Constructivism 60 4.1 Developmental research, acumulative cyclic process 88 4.2 Reflexive relationship between theory and experiments 89 4.3 Micro and Macro -design cycles 90 5.1 Nature of student engagement 112 5.2 Developing HOTS & Understanding 115 5.3 Students Development in Thinking 120 7.1 Model of SI Social Learning Engagement 179 7.2 A spatial model of face-to-face communication between group members in SI Social Learning Space 182 The Phenomenon of Learning vii
Author: Vinodhani Paideya
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1492351272