Resumen de A student-centered active learning approach to teaching grant proposal writing in a Ph.D.: in engineering education program
Nearly all published literature on grant proposal writing focuses on suggesting best practices for, or providing general guidance on,grant proposal writing (i.e., what a grant writer should do and should not do), rather than on pedagogy (i.e., how to teach grantproposal writing). To fill this gap, a student-centered active learning approach to teaching grant proposal writing is developed inthe present study. This approach combines three types of active learning activities: think-pair-share discussions and reflections,mock panel review, and student development of a full proposal. This approach was implemented and assessed in a grant proposalwriting course in a Ph.D. in Engineering Education program at Utah State University. Questionnaire surveys were administered intwo semesters to assess the effectiveness of this approach. The results show that, on a 5-point Likert-type scale with 1 representingthe least effective and 5 representing the most effective, the mean scores of student responses are more than 4.00 for all three typesof active learning activities. The mean scores on ‘‘student development of a full proposal’’ activities are the two highest mean scoresin both semesters: 4.71 in one semester and 4.63 in another semester. This implies that the most effective method for students tolearn how to develop grant proposals is learning by doing, i.e., each student develops a proposal of his/her own.
