To Teach is to Learn: Student and Instructor Perspectives on Assignment Development as a Springboard to Deep Learning

Of the three levels of learning – surface, strategic, and deep (Bain, 2004) – the traditional lecture style combined with large class sizes often found in engineering and science programs tends to encourage surface learning. Students may not progress to, or past strategic learning since motivation to understand a concept beyond attaining the desired grade can be limited in lecture format courses. The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) Graduate Attribute performance criteria for engineering programs go beyond memorization and the ability to demonstrate comprehension. The graduate attributes require deep learning with the demonstration of synthesis and evaluation of concepts. Graduates should be able to create and evaluate innovative solutions for a sustainable world. During an eight-month co-op work term, two of the authors were employed to develop instructional materials for an introductory chemical engineering design course. Our goals were to develop design lab assignments to support deep learning; target Bloom’s higher level cognitive and affective domain skills; support contextual knowledge experience, and achieve progress in all areas of the CEAB graduate attributes. Through this work experience, the co-op students gained a deeper level of understanding of the materials than achieved after completion of the course for credit in the previous term. This paper explores their experience; the instructor experience; the structure of their work; and the method of assignment design, development, and testing. Engineering instructors can encourage and abet deep learning of materials in their courses by incorporating opportunities for peer-to-peer teaching, peer editing interactions, and relevant assignment development experiences. Illustrative design course examples are presented and discussed.

Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Proceedings of the 13th International CDIO Conference in Calgary, Canada, June 18-22 2017