EVALUATION OF STUDENTS’ GENERAL PERCEPTIONS OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN A COMPUTER ENGINEERING PROGRAM IN BRAZIL
Journal Title: Problems of Education in the 21st Century - Year 2015, Vol 68, Issue 1
Abstract
This research aimed to evaluate students’ overall perceptions of Problem-based Learning use in a Computer Engineering program in Brazil. PBL is applied to nine interdisciplinary core courses of its curriculum. A 32-item questionnaire was administered to 115 students, with an average age of 20.9 (SD 2.7) between late 2014 and the beginning of 2015. It includes items on PBL general aspects, improved skills, PBL room and overall satisfaction. The results show that students’ degree of agreement with several items ranged from 4.1 to 5.9, in a seven-point scale. Some of these items revealed that 68.7% of the students got familiarized with PBL along the first year and there is a growing tendency among students to improve this familiarity with PBL over time. Moreover, the two items with lowest degree of disagreement were tutors’ feedback at the end of each tutorial session (35.7%) and the deadline to elaborate these solutions of problems (29.6%). Almost all students also agree with that PBL helps them to improve several skills, mainly problem-solving, self-directed learning and critical thinking. Repeating students in PBL courses scored higher than the non-repeating students. Many of them were statistically significant differences, inclusive for items on familiarization process. This can mean that their failures are not related to the familiarity with the method likely. Finally, most of the students are satisfied with PBL and like it, what indicates a successful use of it in the mentioned program.
Authors and Affiliations
David Moises Barreto dos Santos, Carlos Alberto dos Santos da Silva
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP436108
- DOI -
- Views 96
- Downloads 0
TEACHER-EDUCATOR VERSUS TEACHER-LEADER
Recently, in Lithuanian educational discourse there has been a lot of discussion about leadership. This has become so popular phenomenon that quite often one even does not go deep into the most important parameters of th...
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS: THE ROLE OF THE POSITIVE PERSONALITY MODEL
This research aimed at testing an explicative model of academic achievement of college students. Positive personality traits were hypothesized as the main predictors. Mental health and academic adjustment were tested as...
SOCIAL-ACADEMIC CLIMATE AND ACADEMIC SATISFACTION IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN EDUCATION
The social climate created in the classroom has been recognized to have important implications for learning. This study was motivated by the explore how design students in the design studio compared to other other archit...
THE LEVELS OF CRITICAL THINKING TENDENCIES IN ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
Students who receive architectural education are expected to be individuals who can think critically. For this reason, it becomes a necessity to cultivate creative individuals who are curious, inquiring and multi-faceted...
ENHANCING PEDAGOGY WITH CONTEXT AND PARTNERSHIPS: SCIENCE IN HAND
Two activities, one on heat/work and one on dynamic equilibrium, are described for three high school classes (n=55) in the USA. The curriculum addressed showcases strategies to use with science, technology, engineering,...