Current Research
Duncan
Fraser:
Student learning though computer
simulation
This
project is supported by the NRF as well as by a joint NRF-SIDA (Swedish Research
Agency) grant. In 2003 we explored
the phenomenographic understanding of student learning, as it applies to
learning by computer simulations. We
also ran a fourth-year student research project in which a pair of students
examined the learning of third year students through a distillation column
computer simulation. The students
re-designed an existing computer simulation to encourage better learning, and
then analysed how the students engaged with it.
Student
success in engineering
This project is supported by an NRF
research grant. In 2003 we
continued to gather data on student success, as well as analysing patterns of
success of different groups of students at UCT. Work was also done on comparing the measures of success
proposed in the National Plan with those determined by detailed analysis of
cohorts of entering students. When
this work was presented at the 15th International Conference on Quality in
Higher Education, it attracted considerable attention, particularly from the
Higher Education Quality Committee. The
next phase of this study will be factors affecting student success.
Jenni
Case and Duncan Fraser: Recent graduates perceptions of the curriculum
Jenni and
Duncan ran a fourth-year research project in which a pair of students
interviewed sixteen recent graduates as to their perceptions of the UCT Chemical
Engineering curriculum. This
project deliberately took an in-depth interview approach, rather than the
questionnaire approach which is usually used in such studies, which led to
collection of rich data and some unexpected results, such as the link between
technical confidence and good communication.
Jenni
Case: Students’ Experiences of Learning
Our initial work in this area
identified approaches to learning used by chemical engineering students, and
related these to perceptions of the course and student success.
A further focus was on the extent to which teaching interventions enabled
students to engage in metacognitive development and change their approach to
learning. The course context was
found to be a confounding factor in enabling this change, in particular highly
time pressured environments.
We have subsequently engaged in
some critique of the approaches to learning framework, and have sought to
develop new theoretical approaches that take better account of the broader
socio-cultural context. We are
attempting to incorporate aspects of discourse analysis and also situated
cognition, to develop a better way of understanding students’ experiences of
learning.
Our current research project
involved participation in a third year chemical engineering course, and a series
of individual interviews with most of the students in the class.
Furthermore, all students completed an approach to learning
questionnaire. Analysis of the
latter allowed for a significant critique of inventory based approach to
learning research. Preliminary
analyses of one of the interviews produced a comprehensive picture of a
‘discourse’ occupied by chemical engineering students, and a discussion of
the impact of this discourse on learning. Current
analyses are around the themes of ‘alienation’ and ‘engagement’ and the
extent to which the course environment impacts on these.
His PhD study focuses on the
development of new academic staff as educators at a South African university
using assessment practice as a window on the process of ‘coming to know’
within a departmental context. His key question is: How do new academic staff in
higher education become socialised into the departmental practices of assessing
student performance?
Howard
Pearce: Curriculum
design using a systems approach
Curriculum ‘design’ appears to be undertaken
without using the very principles and strategies that we require our students to
use in their product designs. Can
this be justified because of the different nature of the end product?
The curriculum is not simply a linear, logical stepping through of
material. It is a whole experience.
It should therefore be designed with a holistic approach in mind, such as
a systems approach. This first
attempt is employing the principles of systems thinking to evaluate the present
curriculum.
Transformative
Learning
Our experience in facilitating learning in a first year
physics course has resulted in an approach that initially attempts to assist
students to change the way they think about physical artefacts and systems –
by emphasizing that we utilize models to explain and predict behaviour.
However, students who continue to struggle conceptually also appear to
manifest a certain lack of awareness of the world around them – the physical,
academic, intellectual, emotional world. Adult
education literature contains the notion of transformative learning.
It is my goal, through action research, to establish an environment and
framework in which students are enabled to make the necessary transformations on
the way to becoming independent learners.
Brandon
Reed: Learners’
interaction with technology
His research interests include low cost automation and robotics as well
as social aspects of technology and engineering education. He is currently
completing his PhD that investigates how school children experience engaging
with technology. This is qualitative study, from a phenomenographic perspective,
that draws on his natural science and social science strengths.
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