The impact of class activities on engineering students’ success
Shongwe, Mxolisi Brendon (2021)
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021060815134
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021060815134
Tiivistelmä
This work reports on a methodology used to assess the impact of class activities on engineering students’ success. The module that was assessed in this work is Mineral Processing: Chemical Principles II (MNP20XT). The module is in the 1st-year students’ studies, offered in the first semester for a duration of six months, and consisting of 6 study units. The module has 14 credits and students are required to pass this module to do second year modules, and thus a pass is important. In the academic year 2019, the success rate in this module was a poor 55%. The module is offered at the Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE), Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).
New class activities were introduced in the module for the year 2020 that were not used in the module before (in 2019). The activities introduced are think-pair and share, concept test, class quiz and tutor taking register for all students who consult during a tutorial. These methods will also be for the purpose of achieving the study aim. These new activities were implemented in the different six study units. The students wrote an assessment following the completion of a study unit as per TUT practice. The assessments were class tests and semester tests. The student performance after writing the class test or semester test was analyzed using a grading format (details given in the research methods section). Students’ achievement in each assessment were compared against each other to assess the impact of introducing new class activities.
The methodology used in this work suggests that class activities directly affect engineering student’s success. The work indicates that well implemented and monitored class activities is a strategy that can be used by lecturers and managers in their academic environment to promote student success. The think-pair and share method achieved the highest drop in failures after it was implemented. However, in this work it has been observed that even better student success in an engineering module can be increased by incorporating the aforementioned class activities concurrently.
New class activities were introduced in the module for the year 2020 that were not used in the module before (in 2019). The activities introduced are think-pair and share, concept test, class quiz and tutor taking register for all students who consult during a tutorial. These methods will also be for the purpose of achieving the study aim. These new activities were implemented in the different six study units. The students wrote an assessment following the completion of a study unit as per TUT practice. The assessments were class tests and semester tests. The student performance after writing the class test or semester test was analyzed using a grading format (details given in the research methods section). Students’ achievement in each assessment were compared against each other to assess the impact of introducing new class activities.
The methodology used in this work suggests that class activities directly affect engineering student’s success. The work indicates that well implemented and monitored class activities is a strategy that can be used by lecturers and managers in their academic environment to promote student success. The think-pair and share method achieved the highest drop in failures after it was implemented. However, in this work it has been observed that even better student success in an engineering module can be increased by incorporating the aforementioned class activities concurrently.