2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Experimental centric pedagogy (ECP) which is an active learning approach has been reported to increase student engagement, critical thinking, peer collaboration, as well as motivation in engineering related courses. However, little is known on the perception of students about this Active Learning Pedagogy (ALP). This study aims to investigate the perception of minority serving institutions (MSI) engineering undergraduates on the use of ALP as an active agent during instruction. This study adopted a quantitative approach in a pre-post-test design. The engineering modules where experiment centric pedagogy was implemented span across industrial engineering, civil engineering, and transportation engineering. A Likert scales was employed to collect the perception of the undergraduates towards the impact of the pedagogy on the learning instrument, the learning process, and the overall learning achievements. Data was collected electronically and then collated, cleaned, and analyzed using statistical package for social scientists (SPSS v25.0). The Cronbach-alpha for the instrument was range 0.85 - 0.96. The average mean score of the perception on the instrument range from 3.84 – 3.92 among the undergraduates out of a total of 5. The use of both analogues devices and mobile devices created more positive perception among the students than the use of phone devices only. More so, the correlation result revealed that there is a strong relationship between the perception on the instrument and the overall perception of the pedagogy. The findings also underscore the importance of aligning pedagogical strategies with the diverse student populations found in MSI, promoting more inclusive and effective educational practices.
In summary, this study reinforces the value of ALP in enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes and emphasizes its adaptability and relevance in MSI engineering programs. It provides a foundation for future research and pedagogical development aimed at optimizing the benefits of active learning in diverse educational settings.