Impact of instructor intervention on the conceptual understanding of undergraduate engineering students working in a group
Rajarathinam, Robin Jephthah
Loading…
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/110736
Description
Title
Impact of instructor intervention on the conceptual understanding of undergraduate engineering students working in a group
Author(s)
Rajarathinam, Robin Jephthah
Issue Date
2021-04-27
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Mercier, Emma
Committee Member(s)
Goldstein, Molly Hathaway
Tissenbaum, Michael
Department of Study
Curriculum and Instruction
Discipline
Curriculum and Instruction
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
monitoring
intervention
conceptual understanding
collaboration
CSCL
Abstract
While there are various studies on how instructors’ intervention impacts the group work of students, there is little research on what should be the goal of an intervention and how the corresponding interaction pattern flows from it. This preliminary study examines interaction patterns between instructors and students during an intervention and how they impact the conceptual understanding of the students. Video data was drawn from four discussion sections in a required undergraduate engineering course involving two teaching assistants (TA) and four course assistants (CA). To achieve this, I analyzed how different instructors intervene in groups of students during different scenarios. I draw conclusions on how the interaction pattern of the instructor and the students enables the intervention to be focused on the conceptual understanding of the task and what could potentially influence these interaction patterns. The study showed that the TAs observation of students before intervention does affect the interaction between TA and students. Group discourse around conceptual understanding during the intervention did not significantly impact the interaction but a high correlation between conceptual understanding discourse and teacher-student interaction suggests a further need for research on the topic.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
