Resumen de Student construction of knowledge in an active learning classroom
Elliot P. Douglas, Jack Vargas, Claudia Sotomayor
Active learning approaches are becoming of increasing importance within engineering education, and it has beenestablished that an active learning environment leads to improved student outcomes. What are less known are the waysin which these classes support student learning. Our study takes place in the context of a Process Oriented Guided InquiryLearning (POGIL) classroom. We use grounded theory to answer the research question: How do students constructknowledge in a POGIL classroom? Constructivist grounded theory was used to code student interview data and develop atheory of how student learning occurs. The resulting theory shows that the use of POGIL results in a concept-focused class,as opposed to focusing on discrete aspects of knowledge (facts). This concept-focused class provides for both conceptualunderstanding and improved retention of information. The findings illustrate one way to design a class for deep conceptualunderstanding and suggest broader implications for curriculum design.
