Instructional module in Fourier spectral analysis, based on principles of "how people learn"

Journal of Engineering Education, Apr 2003 by Greenberg, Julie E, Smith, Natalie T, Newman, John H

Student comments suggest that one successful aspect of the HPL-informed module is its ability to maintain an appropriate balance between design freedom and technical guidance. The challenge and ensuing activities motivated and engaged students while providing an opportunity for open-ended problem solving. (Recall that this was not replicated in Lab 2.) However, open-ended problem solving did not occur in isolation, as sometimes happens with projects assigned in engineering courses. The HPL framework produced a technically-supportive learning environment by combining learner- and knowledge-centered activities, in this case, the process of generating ideas, hearing multiple perspectives, and researching and revising one's understanding of the material. We speculate that the great appeal of the module is due to this combination of openended problem solving with concrete exercises to support the students' emerging understanding of the technical material.

VI. CONCLUSION

This paper described the design and evaluation of an instructional module for teaching/learning Fourier spectral analysis. The module is based on the principles of "How People Learn" (HPL) and uses a Legacy cycle where traditional teaching methods such as lecture and lab exercises are augmented with group discussions, a Web-based tutorial, and an interactive demonstration. The assessment included the development of rubrics for scoring student understanding of key concepts. Application of those rubrics revealed that students who used the module demonstrated better understanding of key concepts in spectral analysis relative to students who studied the material using traditional methods. This result must be interpreted carefully given the limitations of the study which included changes in the instructor's awareness of the key concepts and time-on-task in covering the material. Survey results and comments indicate that students generally liked the interactive tutorial and demonstration, as well as the structure provided by the HPL framework.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the NSF Engineering Research Centers Award Number EEC-9876363, by the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology's John F. and Virginia B. Taplin Awards Program, and by iCampus, the MIT-Microsoft Alliance. The authors are grateful to Dinh-Yen Tran and Jeffrey Steinheider, who implemented the interactive demonstration of spectral analysis, to Tomas Lozano-Perez, who developed the software platform used to deliver the Web-based tutorial, and to Leonardo Cedolin and Minnan Xu, who participated in the development and application of the scoring rubrics. The authors also wish to thank Mark D'Avila for his insightful comments on a draft of this paper.

REFERENCES

[1] Bransford, J.D., A.L. Brown, and R.R. Cocking, (Editors). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999.

[2] Schwanz, D.L., X. Lin, S. Brophy, and J.D. Bransford. "Toward the Development of Flexibly Adaptive Instructional Designs," in Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory, edited by C. Reigeluth, Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 1999.