Document Type

Report

Journal/Book Title/Conference

NCETE

Publication Date

2011

First Page

1

Last Page

23

Abstract

The objective of this study was to describe the task interpretation of students engaged in a design activity and determine the extent to which students translate their understanding of their design task to their planning and cognitive strategies. Twenty-nine students at one Colorado high school participated in this study. Students worked individually in the Architectural Design class (n=7), and in teams in the Robotics Design class (n=22). To capture students’ perceptions of their understanding of the task, planning strategies, and cognitive strategies, the Engineering Design Questionnaire (EDQ) was used. The development of the EDQ was guided by Butler and Cartier’s Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) model. Besides the EDQ, a Web-based Engineering Design Notebook was developed to facilitate students reporting planning activities and engineering design strategies. Graphical views are used to present quantitative and qualitative analysis of data collected in this study. In addition, the mean scores of design phases (i.e., SRL dimensions) were compared across SRL features (i.e., task interpretation, planning strategies, and cognitive strategies). From the analysis, the findings suggest that the level of understanding of the task were high in problem definition, conceptual design, and preliminary design. In contrast, students were found to be lacking on those three design process components in the area of planning strategies. Students performed well in cognitive strategies except for problem definition.

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