Examinando por Autor "Ortega-Alvarez J.D."
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Ítem Assessing the effectiveness of peer instruction in students' understanding of electric circuits concepts(AMER SOC ENGINEERING EDUCATION, 2019-01-01) Soto Perez R.A.; Ortega-Alvarez J.D.; Streveler R.A.; Universidad EAFIT. Departamento de Ingeniería de Procesos; Desarrollo y Diseño de ProcesosThis paper describes the implementation of an active learning strategy, called Peer Instruction, in an undergraduate electric circuit analysis course offered at a large public university in Colombia. Peer Instruction is an instructional approach that fosters students' collaboration to increase conceptual understanding. Data was collected from three sections of the course mentioned above. In two sections, students attended a traditional class format (51 students) while another section (15 students) implemented the Peer Instruction methodology. The research question driving this project was whether Peer Instruction would produce significantly higher learning gains than the traditional blackboard and chalk approach. A difference was determined using a quasi-experimental study comparing the learning gains of the students in the traditional sections (i.e., the control group) versus those of the students in the Peer Instruction section (i.e., the experimental group). The learning gains were measured by pre/post application of an adapted version of the DIRECT concept inventory which was translated into Spanish. Preliminary results suggest that the implementation of a Peer Instruction approach in an electric circuit analysis course improves the performance of students on the adapted version of the DIRECT test. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2019Ítem Exploring Undergraduate Students' Computational Modeling Abilities and Conceptual Understanding of Electric Circuits(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2018-08-01) Ortega-Alvarez J.D.; Sanchez W.; Magana A.J.; Universidad EAFIT. Departamento de Ingeniería de Procesos; Desarrollo y Diseño de ProcesosContribution: This paper adds to existing literature on teaching basic concepts of electricity using computer-based instruction; findings suggest that students can develop an accurate understanding of electric circuits when they generate multiple and complementary representations that build toward computational models. Background: Several studies have explored the efficacy of computer-based, multi-representational teaching of electric circuits for novice learners. Existing research has found that instructional use of computational models that move from abstract to concrete representations can foster students' comprehension of electric circuit concepts, but other features of effective instruction using computational models need further investigation. Research Questions: 1) Is there a correlation between students' representational fluency and their ability to reason qualitatively on electric circuits? and 2) Is the quality of student-generated computational representations correlated to their conceptual understanding of electric circuits? Methodology: The study comprised two cases in which 51 sophomore-engineering students completed a voluntary assignment designed to assess their representational fluency and conceptual understanding of electric circuits. Qualitative insights from the first case informed the design of a scoring rubric that served as both the assessment and the data collection instrument. Findings: The results suggest that a multi-representational approach aimed at the construction of computational models can foster conceptual understanding of electric circuits. The number and quality of students' representations showed a positive correlation with their conceptual understanding. In particular, the quality of the computational representations was found to be highly, and significantly, correlated with the correctness of students' answers to qualitative reasoning questions. © 1963-2012 IEEE.Ítem From graduate students to faculty: Portraits of balance in the professional development plans of engineering graduate students(AMER SOC ENGINEERING EDUCATION, 2017-01-01) Ortega-Alvarez J.D.; Streveler R.A.; Fentiman A.W.; Aggarwal H.W.; Biswas S.; Coventry B.S.; Hassan A.-R.; McNamara M.L.; Smriti N.P.; Universidad EAFIT. Departamento de Ingeniería de Procesos; Desarrollo y Diseño de ProcesosThe job of a college engineering faculty member is multifaceted. Faculty are not only expected to teach and conduct research but also to write proposals, consult, network, engage in administrative duties, and the list continues. The relative importance and time allocated to these different functions vary according to the nature and focus of the institution and the interests of the faculty. However, engineering graduate students aspiring to careers in academe are not usually trained in the multiple facets of the profession. As a result, when they become faculty members they often struggle to find ways to balance the parallel and many times competing demands of these functions. This paper examines the professional development plans of six engineering graduate students with a marked interest in an academic career. These plans are one of the major deliverables of a three-credit graduate course at a large, research-intensive unive rsity. The overarc hing goal of this course, as stated on its syllabus, is to provide students with an opportunity to learn and practice the skills that complement and enhance classroom teaching and learning in a tenure-track faculty position, either at a research-inte nsive university or at an institution that focuses on undergraduate engineering education. The research questions that orientate the study are: What do the professional development plans of engineering graduate students portray about their striving for balance in their future faculty careers? How does writing a professional development plan with expert guidance in a formal class help these students prepare for a faculty position? The analysis of students' professional development plans as qualitative artifacts, under the lens of expectations and values, reveals a wide variety of approaches to the role of faculty. Subsequent individual reflection on these plans allowed researchers to gather insights into why students chose to focus on different perspectives of the faculty job. Finally, a follow-up group conversation with the students shows that beneath these different perceptions and expectations lies the idea of balance, evolved and transformed by the discussions and activities of the course. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2017.Ítem Knowing our story: Framing a cooperative inquiry project to explore the personal growth of graduate students in engineering education(AMER SOC ENGINEERING EDUCATION, 2017-01-01) Aleong R.J.; Goldstein M.H.; Ortega-Alvarez J.D.; Rodriguez-Simmonds H.E.; Universidad EAFIT. Departamento de Ingeniería de Procesos; Desarrollo y Diseño de ProcesosDoctoral education is often described by faculty and graduate students as "a journey", "a learning process", and "a transformative experience". These descriptions speak to the experiential nature of doctoral education which aims at bringing about some change in students to prepare them for their future career. In the research literature, the path and process of becoming an engineering education researcher is an emerging field. In this paper, we present the framing of a co-operative inquiry project to explore our personal growth as graduate students. Co-operative inquiry is a research method in which multiple people share and explore a topic from their own perspectives through collective dialogue, reflection, interrogation, and transformation. Our co-operative inquiry group consisted of the authors of this paper as coresearchers and co-subjects and is situated in our shared interest in graduate education and learning. While we are at different stages of the doctoral program, we have the mutual experience of completing the first year of the program at the same institution. We engaged in cooperative inquiry sessions, focused on learning within ourselves and with others, to make new meaning from our experiences. Reflections during the formative first year of doctoral training were explored as well as reflections and memos generated as part of the inquiry process. Through the co-operative inquiry process, this study offers insight into opportunities for peer-topeer mentorship and learning enrichment in graduate studies. Our insight may support graduate students in discovering and charting their own personal journeys of learning and development in engineering education research. Our future work will be guided by our co-operative inquiry process and structure, with a focus on delving deeper into the aspects that make up our personal and collective story. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2017.Ítem Special session: Fostering change: Application and implications of Palmer's movement approach to change(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2017-01-01) Streveler R.A.; Pitterson N.P.; Smith K.A.; Ortega-Alvarez J.D.; Universidad EAFIT. Departamento de Ingeniería de Procesos; Desarrollo y Diseño de ProcesosAccording to change literature, the multiplicity of levels and structures that exist within an organization makes organizational change a difficult process. Similarly, many challenges face any attempt to foster change in engineering education, due to the various layers that make up the field. Looking at the evolution of engineering education research (EER) as a field and the individual pathways of engineering education researchers, EER scholars have discussed a model for engineering education reform that draws from Palmer's Movement Approach to change. This special session introduces Palmer's approach as a framework to look at reforms that have already occurred, and envision possible paths for action toward desired changes. © 2017 IEEE.Ítem Using self-determination theory to evaluate faculty professional development programs(Research in Engineering Education Network, 2019-01-01) Vieira C.; Ortega-Alvarez J.D.; Universidad EAFIT. Departamento de Ingeniería de Procesos; Desarrollo y Diseño de ProcesosThis paper discusses the challenges of assessing faculty professional development programs and proposes using the self-determination theory to guide the development of an instrument to assess such programs. Previous experiences have shown that some professional development programs may become transformative learning experiences. These programs present unique challenges for assessment. Since the participants may experience a shift in their understanding of specific concepts, they may feel less competent after they have actively participated in a set of learning activities regarding those concepts. In this study, we propose measuring participants' perceptions of the three psychological needs suggested by the self-determination theory: Autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The participants of a professional development workshop on instructional design completed a pretest/posttest instrument designed to assess changes in their perceptions about autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the context of instructional design. This paper presents the preliminary validation of the instrument using factor analysis, checking for internal consistency, and assessing convergent and discriminant validity. Based on the results from these analyses, the research team proposes future directions for the refinement of the instrument and the assessment of professional development programs. Copyright © 2019 Camilo Vieira and Juan David Ortega-Alvarez.