Learning strategies of engineering students: How do they study outside class, and why?
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Learning and leadership (MPLOL), MSc
Publicerad
2019
Författare
Cervin-Ellqvist, Maria
Larsson, Daniel
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
While lecturers in engineering education may control what happens in class to promote students’ learning, what happens outside class is up to the students themselves. One important factor of what happens outside class is which learning strategies students use, as some strategies are more effective than other. Another important factor is to which extent students self-regulate their learning by attempting to monitor, regulate and control it, which includes choosing learning strategies, using them and evaluating them. This regulation can for example include strategies aimed at increasing knowledge (cognitive strategies) or monitoring knowledge (metacognitive strategies).
This thesis aimed to (1) map what learning strategies engineering students use in a real-world setting, in real courses; (2) investigate the students’ motivation for choosing certain learning strategies and (3) probe their metacognitive awareness of the effectiveness of different learning strategies. It also aimed to investigate if differences could be seen across two engineering programs (bio- and civil engineering) or across two types of courses (calculation courses and conceptual courses). To obtain insight into this, 416 students answered a questionnaire specifically designed for this study.
Our results revealed a complex picture of what learning strategies students use and why. It also revealed that the learning strategies students used varied across courses but not across programs. Further, the students used the strategies, including the most used strategy to study old exams, in several different ways. For example, they used them aiming at either cognitive or metacognitive goals or sometimes both. The participants were in general also found to be metacognitively aware of the effectiveness of different strategies. Some students, however, used certain strategies not because they believed them to be effective or aiming at cognitive or metacognitive goals, but to self-regulate their motivation or behaviour.
We can conclude that students used their strategies for a number of different reasons and in many different ways, which was not revealed by looking only at what students did. This points out that it is crucial to not only investigate what students do, but also why and how.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
learning strategies , engineering education , self-regulated learning , metacognition