"Being a shy person has hindered my learning abilities. I used to keep quiet during group work because I was afraid of the others' reactions to my ideas...I still have a lot to learn about becoming totally confident in a group situation, but I have definitely come a long way."These are statements from the essays of the first year students in the Mesa Integrated Engineering Program. The IEP, as it is called, is now in its second year at Mesa and is beginning its first year at Glendale. Engineering faculty members, together with faculty from mathematics, physics, and chemistry, have designed an integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum that emphasizes a more cooperative learning environment between students and faculty. The program is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to improve the undergraduate engineering experience. In addition to the thrust of using state-of-the-art technology and instructional technology to help students explore a range of problems for learning, active learning techniques are used to allow students to work and learn in small groups."Working with partners has been one of the most challenging parts of the Integrated Engineering Program for me...I had worked alone for my entire adult life and felt very confident about it. We were forced to worked together as partners in the beginning and chose to work together in the end."
Integrating the curriculum and instituting cooperative learning in the classroom did not magically happen as the program opened its doors to the first students. The faculty involved consciously worked together through the summer months and as the semesters progressed in collaborative planning and examining rationale and techniques for providing students with opportunities to explore technology, teamwork, and cooperative learning. Faculty, as well as students, must go through tremendous "paradigm shifts" -- or shifts in thinking. The transition has not been without struggles and much learning on the part of faculty and students.
Mike Sims, Engineering Faculty of MCC, and project leader for IEP says to his students,
"First, engineers must be able to work together effectively in teams. Engineering education has for many years forced students to work in isolation in a competitive environment that stifles learning and gives the student little to no exposure to the environment that they will work in in industry... Through the use of cooperative learning in this class (ECE 110), students will be given the opportunity to work together on teams to improve their own learning process as well as the learning process of others."
It sounds like an easy thing to plan cooperative learning within the context of engineering courses. Yet, it means a whole new way for faculty to go about the business of teaching. Matt Wozniak, Physics faculty at MCC, can now smile as he talks about the first semester experiences he and the Mesa team had as they were working so hard to integrate the curriculum and provide opportunities for the students to work in teams. He says that they tried to integrate everything all at once, and put the students in groups with little instruction on how to work together. A number of the faculty are veteran instructors who are used to lecture format and the pressure to "cover" the material. These are only some of the vital issues that faculty must address when it comes to incorporating cooperative learning into the curriculum.
Keith Edwards, Engineering faculty of GCC and team leader for the IEP at Glendale says,
"I've always encouraged my students to ask questions or interrupt me as I am lecturing. I want them to be participating and thinking along with me...it was always the same few students in every class that asked the questions or seemed to be involved. We were advised at our Sedona institute to start slow and add cooperative learning structures as we feel comfortable in doing so."Keith incorporates what is called the interactive lecture into his lesson plans for the ECE 110 course. He reports that he is pleased with the results. Now he has all students participating and responding to questions, not just a select few as in the past.
Another name for the interactive lecture under the Johnson and Johnson framework is informal cooperative learning. This is one of Mike's favorites and involves the faculty member talking for 10 or 15 minutes; structuring a question that is appropriate to the topic of discussion; and then telling students to "turn to your partner and discuss..." The IEP faculty teams are discovering that they are still able to stay on course as far as the presentation of difficult material and help their students stay involved with the material and learning process by the use of this informal structure.
Mike is also using one of the formal models of cooperative learning, presented by Johnson and Johnson, to facilitate his students learning to use the technology associated with the engineering program. This involves the faculty member giving students specific instructions on 1) what is the academic task; 2) what is the criteria for success; 3) how is positive interdependence established; 4) how are individuals held accountable for material or mastery; and 5) what are the expected behaviors from students.
Feedback from the IEP first year students indicates that working in groups and having the collaborative connection with other students and faculty has been one of the strengths of this new program. It has helped to enrich student and faculty learning. Students said repeatedly that getting to know their fellow students helped them learn and to get comfortable with asking questions that they might not have asked in isolation. These students developed their own study groups outside of class and maintain contact with each other into their second year. For faculty, the integration of cooperative learning ideas into the classroom has resulted in more involved, more active and responsible students. Faculty and students agree that the initial experiences with the IEP have also helped to create a sense of "community" where all can grow as learners and experience the benefits of positive interdependence.
For more information on the IEP program, contact one of the following IEP team members:
GCC Teaching Team:
Keith Edwards, Bassam Matar, Ron Baltzer, John Bennett, Paul Gilletti
MCC Teaching Team:
Don Anderson, Gerald Payne, Matthew Wozniak, Mike Sims
The Internet Connection at MCLI is
Alan Levine
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Comments to alan.levine@domail.maricopa.edu
URL: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/labyforum/win96/win96F2.html