2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Experiential learning is a powerful pedagogical approach that enriches student education by immersing them in real-world scenarios and active problem-solving challenges. This approach is particularly impactful in engineering studio environments, where students engage in collaborative tasks that mirror professional practice. Reflective practices, such as journaling, have been shown to be integral to the experiential learning process, enhancing students' use of metacognitive strategies and improving performance outcomes. However, the degree to which students engage with reflective activities following biomedical engineering (BME) studios—rich in real-time feedback and collaboration—remains underexplored. This work-in-progress paper introduces a conceptual framework for evaluating how BME students cognitively and affectively reflect on their studio experiences through peer observation and assessment. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory and Social Learning Theory, the framework provides a structured method for examining students’ reflections on their peers’ technical skills, teamwork, and social dynamics. It highlights the dual dimensions of reflection: cognitive, focusing on technical and problem-solving skills, and affective, concentrating on interpersonal dynamics, collaboration, and feedback interactions within the studio setting.

Using a combination of inductive and deductive coding, we analyzed post-studio reflection entries from students enrolled in an upper-level Biomedical Engineering (BME) course, which featured five three-hour studio sessions over the course of a semester. Our analysis was grounded in the "Framework of Student Affect in Field Biology," adapted to the engineering context. By examining students' affective responses and articulated values as they reflected on their studio experiences, we aim to uncover factors that foster synergistic improvements in studio outputs. Additionally, we leveraged these reflections to assess whether studio environments that promote creative exploration of unique engineering solutions empower students to enhance collective knowledge and creativity. Preliminary findings indicate that students are motivated by a strong connection to human health and prosocial opportunities, with high-performing teams characterized by both technical proficiency and positive affective dynamics.

This research showcases how our tool can effectively capture and analyze both the cognitive and affective responses of students following their participation in studio sessions over the course of a semester. Our immediate goal is to leverage this framework to better support students in achieving learning outcomes within BME studios. In the long term, we believe our framework will offer valuable insights that inform the development of effective teaching practices, not only for BME studios but also for capstone and other studio/design courses across the broader biomedical engineering education community.