Improving Student Engagement in Engineering Using Brain-Based Learning Principles as Instructional Delivery Protocols

This paper presents a plausible solution using brain based learning principles as instructional delivery protocols to address the issue of lack of academic engagement among the upper level engineering students. The study was conducted at Tuskegee University, an HBCU and can be implemented universally in other institutes due to its foundation on brain based learning principles. Although student engagement issues inside engineering classrooms have several components, we focus our attention in this paper mainly on two issues: the dis-engagement arising due to the lack of understanding of pre-requisites and insufficient mathematical skills of students reaching junior and senior engineering classes. A previous pilot study confirmed that a large fraction of students who reach junior and senior level classes require repeated review of pre-requisite concepts and need assistance in reviewing their basic and essential mathematical skills before they can successfully engage in their classes. To address these issues, an instructional delivery framework titled “Tailored Instructions and Engineered Delivery Using PROTOCOLs” (TIED-UP) has been designed and explored, where mandatory brain-based learning procedures were used along with a media rich online delivery strategy. This paper summarizes the efforts currently undertaken to develop this framework based on brain-based learning theories to address some of these issues. In this framework, each course concept is broken down to interconnected sub-concepts. Short conceptual videos that use a number of mandatory instructional protocols were developed for the instruction of each of these concept and sub-concept. The study shows that such an intervention has significantly increased students’ academic success as measured by grades and caused a substantial decline in their failure rate, when compared against a control group. Introduction & Background Twenty-first century engineering education in the United States has benefited greatly from attention and fresh thinking in the recent years, although we still face significant challenges that prevent broader national success 1-3 . In this paper, we report the weakness we identified in retaining the pre-requisite information necessary for upper level courses among engineering students who make up a sizable fraction of the undergraduate population entering the engineering workforce. Based at an HBCU-designated school with extensive NSF support, this study has analyzed foundational weaknesses in student mathematical competencies and preparation for advanced coursework. It connected these weaknesses to the level of student academic engagement – both inside and outside of the classroom – and concluded that novel and effective brain-based learning interventions that promoted student academic engagement in our digital era could translate to students experiencing more successful acquisition of engineering competencies that successful career entry requires. This analysis, attempting to address student weaknesses by addressing low academic engagement levels, led to the design and exploration of a brain-based learning framework titled “Tailored Instructions and Engineered Delivery using PROTOCOLs” (TIED-UP), in which mandatory teaching protocols were used along with a media-rich instructional delivery strategy for an engaged and improved learning experience. The TIED-UP pilot data appearing in this paper confirm that a large fraction of students who reach junior classes require repeated review of pre-requisite concepts before introducing a higher-level concept, and consistent assistance in reviewing their basic and essential mathematical skills in order to engage them actively at the higher level. The TIED-UP intervention is an intensive – and, so far, successful approach to repairing underperformance in junior and senior engineering classes. It employs novel and media-rich tools and protocols with firm research support to provide assistance and repeated review.