Effects of integrating authentic engineering problem centered learning on student problem solving

Abstract

Problem-solving is a critical skill for engineers, and thus a critical skill for engineering programs to teach. Although variousapproaches to address problem-solving exist, none uses nonlinear, unscaffolded, unstructured, open-ended problemsprovided by practicing engineers. To address this shortcoming, such authentic engineering problems (AEPs) wereincorporated into a heat transfer course. AEPs are authentic problems developed by practicing engineering and arerepresentative of the unstructured, open-ended problems encountered in industry. To make space for students (N = 35) towork on AEPs in class, the course was inverted, meaning that the standard course lecture content was moved online. ThisAEP Centered Learning (AEPCL) format was assessed by three measures—talk-alouds, student self-evaluations, andsolution evaluations. Across all assessments AEPCL led to improved problem solving. Comparisons to the same coursetaught in a traditional format (N = 32) showed that these improvements came with no cost to students’ understanding ofthe content or loss of ability to solve standard textbook problems.