Project Investigator(s): Susan Nesbit, Professor of Teaching, Civil Engineering, Naoko Ellis, Pete Ostafichuk, Tanya Tan
Project Description
This study investigates the influence of metacognition lessons, developed for the first year engineering program, on levels of students’ transdisciplinary skills. We propose the use of a pre-post survey, as well as course performance evaluations to measure student levels of metacognition and transdisciplinarity. We also propose to employ faculty and student interviews to help illuminate the mechanisms by which metacognition and transdisciplinary skills may be linked and to explore the effectiveness of specific learning activities on levels of transdisciplinary skills in first year engineering students.
Research Questions
1.Does metacognition influence the development of transdisciplinary skills? 2. Can systems and empathic thinking be used as surrogate indicators to measure levels of transdisciplinary? 3. What learning activities support the development of transdisciplinarity? This project aims to illuminate mechanisms by which students develop transdisciplinary skills. Specifically, we aim to test the hypothesis that metacognition is a “threshold skill” required in tandem with, or perhaps before, transdisciplinary skills can be effectively developed. To test this hypothesis, we aim to develop course performance assessment tools that determine students’ abilities to think empathically (for example, as empathic thinking relates to teamwork) and also to think systemically (for example, as this skill relates to graphic representations). We also aim to develop research instruments (e.g., a survey, interview and observation protocols) to determine a student’s attitudes toward systems thinking and empathy.
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
Transdisciplinary curricula prepare university students with both a holistic understanding of complex, ill-structured, real-world problems, and the ability to effectively tackle these problems. Within engineering education, while the need for transdisciplinary curricula is well recognized, learning activities that develop such skills are sparse. The learning activities developed via this project for UBC’s first year engineering program will be of great interest to other engineering programs in Canada, the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. These learning activities may also be relevant to non-engineering programmes because it is well-recognized that transdisciplinarity is a core skill relating to sustainability education.