A Pedagogy for Engineering Concepts Focusing on Experiential Learning

Abstract

In this work, we attempt to present pedagogy for engineering courses. The proposed pedagogy can be applied to a large number of engineering concepts in various courses. The proposed pedagogy involves the faculty designing a set of experiments, for the proposed engineering concept. Students implement the experiment, designed by the faculty, observe the results and attempt to summarize the observations. The summary statement by the student is the actual statement of the intended engineering concept. In this pedagogy, since the student has gone through the experience of the engineering concept, and also made the formal statement of the concept, the student comprehends and appreciates the concept, and hence, enhances student learning. The suggested pedagogy is demonstrated through experiential design for concepts like: Fourier series, Central Limit Theorem, and Sampling Theorem. The usual pedagogy adopted involved five major stages: (i) the formal statement of the concept, (ii) the mathematical equation of the concept, (iii) the mathematical proof of the concept, (iv) numerical examples to apply the concept, and (v) implementation of experiments in laboratory to prove the concept. This five-step process for every concept was spread over one or two weeks, as found essential. While students were able to acquire conceptual knowledge, not many were able to answer assessments that involved true comprehension of the concept. The revised pedagogy required students first go through the laboratory experience, related to the intended concept. At the end of the laboratory sessions, every student records the observation. The revised pedagogy also involves five steps, but with the laboratory experience first. This changed pedagogy resulted in enhanced student learning.