Engineering students are provided with many opportunities for rich experiences to learn by doing through hands-on, minds-on activities that include labs, collaborative building and design projects. These experiential learning pedagogies have proven to be very successful in inviting students to apply their content knowledge and unique skillset in authentic ways. However, Ambrose (2013, p.1) points out that, “…yes, students learn by doing, but only when they have time to reflect- the two go hand in hand. Why, then, don’t engineering curricula provide constant structured opportunities and time to ensure continual reflection takes place?”
Students in engineering reflect informally quite often. They revise their design project after receiving feedback from their end-user. They will rework their lab experiment when the results are not what they expect. However, in the absence of formal reflection, students can misinterpret their experiences and act on these misinterpretations (Turns et al., 2014). This misinterpretation often impairs their learning later in the curriculum. Rather than leaping from one experience to the next, reflection asks students to pause to grapple with the complexities and ambiguities of an authentic experience.
Through intentional, structured reflection, students reconcile theory and practice and develop a plan for implementing new knowledge into their next experience. The process of reflection supports students to make sense of an experience as they develop the metacognitive skills required for deeper, life-long learning (Ash & Clayton, 2009). Through structured, well-designed reflection assignments, students develop important employability skills like “problem-solving, higher order reasoning, integrative thinking, goal clarification openness to new ideas, ability to adopt new perspectives and systemic thinking (Ash & Clayton, 2009, p.27). Reflection and the promotion of reflective techniques are becoming more important in engineering education because of the expanding need for diverse, adaptive, broad-thinking, and nimble engineering experts who can respond to the ever-increasing challenges that society faces. Through the process of structured reflection, students build well-articulated skills and competencies that demonstrate their development into professional Engineers.
Sources:
Eliot, T.S. (1944) Four Quartets. Faber and Faber
Ambrose, S. A. (2013). Undergraduate engineering curriculum: The ultimate design challenge. The Bridge, 43(2), 16-23
Turns, J. A., Sattler, B., Yasuhara, K., Borgford-Parnell, J. L., & Atman, C. J. (2014).
Integrating reflection into engineering education. [Paper Presentation]. 121
st ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis.
https://depts.washington.edu/cpreeuw/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Integrating-Reflection-ASEE-2014.pdf
Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1(1), 25-48.