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1. Developing Deliberate Practice for Learning Engineering Dynamics by Analyzing Students’ Mental Models

   Tang, Yan; Bai, Haiyan; Catrambone, Richard (June 2022, ASEE annual conference exposition)

   Practice plays a critical role in learning engineering dynamics. Typical practice in a dynamics course involves solving textbook problems. These problems can impose great cognitive load on underprepared students because they have not mastered constituent knowledge and skills required for solving whole problems. For these students, learning can be improved by being engaged in deliberate practice. Deliberate practice refers to a type of practice aimed at improving specific constituent knowledge or skills. Compared to solving whole problems requiring the simultaneous use of multiple constituent skills, deliberate practice is usually focused on one component skill at a time, which results in less cognitive load and more specificity. Contemporary theories of expertise development have highlighted the influence of deliberate practice (DP) on achieving exceptional performance in sports, music, and various professional fields. Concurrently, there is an emerging method for improving learning efficiency of novices by combining deliberate practice with cognitive load theory (CLT), a cognitive-architecture-based theory for instructional design. Mechanics is a foundation for most branches of engineering. It serves to develop problem-solving skills and consolidate understanding of other subjects, such as applied mathematics and physics. Mechanics has been a challenging subject. Students need to understand governing principles to gain conceptual knowledge and acquire procedural knowledge to apply these principles to solve problems. Due to the difficulty in developing conceptual and procedural knowledge, mechanics courses are among those that receive high DFW rates (percentage of students receiving a grade of D or F or Withdrawing from a course), and students are more likely to leave engineering after taking mechanics courses. Deliberate practice can help novices develop good representations of the knowledge needed to produce superior problem solving performance. The goal of the present study is to develop deliberate practice techniques to improve learning effectiveness and to reduce cognitive load. Our pilot study results revealed that the student mental effort scores were negatively correlated with their knowledge test scores with r = -.29 (p < .05) after using deliberate practice strategies. This supports the claim that deliberate practice can improve student learning while reducing cognitive load. In addition, the higher the students’ knowledge test scores, the lower their mental effort was when taking the tests. In other words, the students who used deliberate practice strategies had better learning results with less cognitive load. To design deliberate practice, we often need to analyze students’ persistent problems caused by faulty mental models, also referred to as an intuitive mental model, and misconceptions. In this study, we continue to conduct an in-depth diagnostic process to identify students’ common mistakes and associated intuitive mental models. We then use the results to develop deliberate practice problems aimed at changing students’ cognitive strategies and mental models. 

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2. Developing Deliberate Practice for Learning Engineering Dynamics by Analyzing Students’ Mental Models

   Tang, Yan; Bai, Haiyan; Catrambone, Richard (June 2022, ASEE annual conference exposition)

   Practice plays a critical role in learning engineering dynamics. Typical practice in a dynamics course involves solving textbook problems. These problems can impose great cognitive load on underprepared students because they have not mastered constituent knowledge and skills required for solving whole problems. For these students, learning can be improved by being engaged in deliberate practice. Deliberate practice refers to a type of practice aimed at improving specific constituent knowledge or skills. Compared to solving whole problems requiring the simultaneous use of multiple constituent skills, deliberate practice is usually focused on one component skill at a time, which results in less cognitive load and more specificity. Contemporary theories of expertise development have highlighted the influence of deliberate practice (DP) on achieving exceptional performance in sports, music, and various professional fields. Concurrently, there is an emerging method for improving learning efficiency of novices by combining deliberate practice with cognitive load theory (CLT), a cognitive-architecture-based theory for instructional design. Mechanics is a foundation for most branches of engineering. It serves to develop problem-solving skills and consolidate understanding of other subjects, such as applied mathematics and physics. Mechanics has been a challenging subject. Students need to understand governing principles to gain conceptual knowledge and acquire procedural knowledge to apply these principles to solve problems. Due to the difficulty in developing conceptual and procedural knowledge, mechanics courses are among those that receive high DFW rates (percentage of students receiving a grade of D or F or Withdrawing from a course), and students are more likely to leave engineering after taking mechanics courses. Deliberate practice can help novices develop good representations of the knowledge needed to produce superior problem solving performance. The goal of the present study is to develop deliberate practice techniques to improve learning effectiveness and to reduce cognitive load. Our pilot study results revealed that the student mental effort scores were negatively correlated with their knowledge test scores with r = -.29 (p < .05) after using deliberate practice strategies. This supports the claim that deliberate practice can improve student learning while reducing cognitive load. In addition, the higher the students’ knowledge test scores, the lower their mental effort was when taking the tests. In other words, the students who used deliberate practice strategies had better learning results with less cognitive load. To design deliberate practice, we often need to analyze students’ persistent problems caused by faulty mental models, also referred to as an intuitive mental model, and misconceptions. In this study, we continue to conduct an in-depth diagnostic process to identify students’ common mistakes and associated intuitive mental models. We then use the results to develop deliberate practice problems aimed at changing students’ cognitive strategies and mental models. 

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3. Applying Deliberate Practice to Facilitate Schema Acquisition in Learning Introductory Mechanics

   Tang, Yan; Bai, Haiyan; Catrambone, Richard (July 2021, ASEE annual conference proceedings)

   null (Ed.)

   Learning is usually conceptualized as a process during which new information is processed in working memory to form knowledge structures called schemas, which are stored in long-term memory. Practice plays a critical role in developing schemas through learning-by-doing. Contemporary expertise development theories have highlighted the influence of deliberate practice (DP) on achieving exceptional performance in sports, music, and different professional fields. Concurrently, there is an emerging method for improving learning efficiency by combining deliberate practice with cognitive load theory (CLT), a cognition-architecture-based theory for instructional design. Mechanics is a foundation for most branches of engineering. It serves to develop problem-solving skills and consolidate understanding of other subjects, such as applied mathematics and physics. Mechanics has been a challenging subject. Students need to understand governing principles to gain conceptual knowledge and acquire procedural knowledge to apply these principles to solve problems. Due to the difficulty in developing conceptual and procedural knowledge, mechanics courses are among those which receive high DFW rates (percentage of students receiving a grade of D or F or Withdrawing from a course) and students are more likely to leave engineering after taking mechanics courses. Since deliberate practice can help novices develop good representations of the knowledge needed to produce superior problem solving performance, this study is to evaluate how deliberate practice helps students learn mechanics during the process of schema acquisition and consolidation. Considering cognitive capacity limitations, we will apply cognitive load theory to develop deliberate practice to help students build declarative and procedural knowledge without exceeding their working memory limitations. We will evaluate the effects of three practice strategies based on CLT on the schema acquisition and consolidation in two mechanics courses (i.e., Statics and Dynamics). Examples and assessment results will be provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the practice strategies as well as the challenges. 

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4. Applying Deliberate Practice to Facilitate Schema Acquisition in Learning Introductory Mechanics

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--36691  

   Tang, Yan; Bai, Haiyan; Catrambone, Richard (July 2021, ASEE Conferences)

   Learning is usually conceptualized as a process during which new information is processed in working memory to form knowledge structures called schemas, which are stored in long-term memory. Practice plays a critical role in developing schemas through learning-by-doing. Contemporary expertise development theories have highlighted the influence of deliberate practice (DP) on achieving exceptional performance in sports, music, and different professional fields. Concurrently, there is an emerging method for improving learning efficiency by combining deliberate practice with cognitive load theory (CLT), a cognition-architecture-based theory for instructional design. Mechanics is a foundation for most branches of engineering. It serves to develop problem-solving skills and consolidate understanding of other subjects, such as applied mathematics and physics. Mechanics has been a challenging subject. Students need to understand governing principles to gain conceptual knowledge and acquire procedural knowledge to apply these principles to solve problems. Due to the difficulty in developing conceptual and procedural knowledge, mechanics courses are among those which receive high DFW rates (percentage of students receiving a grade of D or F or Withdrawing from a course) and students are more likely to leave engineering after taking mechanics courses. Since deliberate practice can help novices develop good representations of the knowledge needed to produce superior problem solving performance, this study is to evaluate how deliberate practice helps students learn mechanics during the process of schema acquisition and consolidation. Considering cognitive capacity limitations, we will apply cognitive load theory to develop deliberate practice to help students build declarative and procedural knowledge without exceeding their working memory limitations. We will evaluate the effects of three practice strategies based on CLT on schema acquisition and consolidation in two mechanics courses (i.e., Statics and Dynamics). Examples and assessment results will be provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the practice strategies as well as the challenges. 

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5. How drawing prompts can increase cognitive engagement in an active learning engineering course

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20354  

   Wu, Sally P. W.; Van Veen, Barry; Rau, Martina A. (September 2020, Journal of Engineering Education)

   Abstract BackgroundRecent engineering education research has found improved learning outcomes when instructors engage students actively (e.g., through practice problems) rather than passively (e.g., in lectures). As more instructors shift toward active learning, research needs to identify how different types of activities affect students' cognitive engagement with concepts in the classroom. In this study, we investigate the effects of prompting novice students to draw when solving problems, a professional practice of engineers. PurposeWe investigate whether implementing instructional prompts to draw in an active learning classroom (a) increases students' use and value of drawing as a problem‐solving strategy and (b) enhances students' problem‐solving performance. MethodWe compared survey data and exam scores collected in one undergraduate class that received prompts to draw in video lectures and in‐class problems (drawing condition) and one class that received no drawing prompts (control condition). ResultsAfter drawing prompts were implemented, students' use and value of drawing increased, and these effects persisted to the end of the semester. Students were more likely to draw when provided drawing prompts. Furthermore, students who received prompts outperformed students who did not on exam questions that target conceptual understanding. ConclusionsOur findings reveal how implementing drawing prompts in an active learning classroom may help students engage in drawing and solve problems conceptually. This study contributes to our understanding of what types of active learning activities can improve instructional practices in engineering education. Particularly, we show how prompts that foster authentic engineering practices can increase cognitive engagement in introductory‐level engineering courses. 

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