Lincoln, Yvonna, and Egon Guba, "Postpositivism and the Naturalist Paradigm," pp. 14-46 in Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry . Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985.*

Traditional engineering instruction is deductive, beginning with theories and progressing to the applications of those theories Alternative teaching approaches are more inductive Topics are introduced by presenting specific observations, case studies or problems, and theories are taught or the students are helped to discover them only after the need to know them has been established This study reviews several of the most commonly used inductive teaching methods, including inquiry learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, case-based teaching, discovery learning, and just-in-time teaching The paper defines each method, highlights commonalities and specific differences, and reviews research on the effectiveness of the methods While the strength of the evidence varies from one method to another, inductive methods are consistently found to be at least equal to, and in general more effective than, traditional deductive methods for achieving a broad range of learning outcomes

Inductive Teaching and Learning Methods: Definitions, Comparisons, and Research Bases

Within the emerging context of the digitization of health care, electronic health records (EHRs) constitute a significant technological advance in the way medical information is stored, communicated, and processed by the multiple parties involved in health care delivery. However, in spite of the anticipated value potential of this technology, there is widespread concern that consumer privacy issues may impede its diffusion. In this study, we pose the question: Can individuals be persuaded to change their attitudes and opt-in behavioral intentions toward EHRs, and allow their medical information to be digitized even in the presence of significant privacy concerns? To investigate this question, we integrate an individual's concern for information privacy (CFIP) with the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to examine attitude change and likelihood of opting-in to an EHR system. We theorize that issue involvement and argument framing interact to influence attitude change, and that concern for information privacy further moderates the effects of these variables. We also propose that likelihood of adoption is driven by concern for information privacy and attitude. We test our predictions using an experiment with 366 subjects where we manipulate the framing of the arguments supporting EHRs. We find that an individual's CFIP interacts with argument framing and issue involvement to affect attitudes toward the use of EHRs. In addition, results suggest that attitude toward EHR use and CFIP directly influence opt-in behavioral intentions. An important finding for both theory and practice is that even when people have high concerns for privacy, their attitudes can be positively altered with appropriate message framing. These results as well as other theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Adoption of electronic health records in the presence of privacy concerns: the elaboration likelihood model and individual persuasion

Over the last quarter century, the dominant tendency in comparative cognitive psychology has been to emphasize the similarities between human and nonhuman minds and to downplay the differences as "one of degree and not of kind" (Darwin 1871). In the present target article, we argue that Darwin was mistaken: the profound biological continuity between human and nonhuman animals masks an equally profound discontinuity between human and nonhuman minds. To wit, there is a significant discontinuity in the degree to which human and nonhuman animals are able to approximate the higher-order, systematic, relational capabilities of a physical symbol system (PSS) (Newell 1980). We show that this symbolic-relational discontinuity pervades nearly every domain of cognition and runs much deeper than even the spectacular scaffolding provided by language or culture alone can explain. We propose a representational-level specification as to where human and nonhuman animals' abilities to approximate a PSS are similar and where they differ. We conclude by suggesting that recent symbolic- connectionist models of cognition shed new light on the mechanisms that underlie the gap between human and nonhuman minds.

/pdf/darwin-s-mistake-explaining-the-discontinuity-between-human-4fre7cnfit.pdf

Darwin's mistake: Explaining the discontinuity between human and nonhuman minds

Engineering education in K-12 classrooms is a small but growing phenomenon that may have implications for engineering and also for the other STEM subjects--science, technology, and mathematics. Specifically, engineering education may improve student learning and achievement in science and mathematics, increase awareness of engineering and the work of engineers, boost youth interest in pursuing engineering as a career, and increase the technological literacy of all students. The teaching of STEM subjects in U.S. schools must be improved in order to retain U.S. competitiveness in the global economy and to develop a workforce with the knowledge and skills to address technical and technological issues. Engineering in K-12 Education reviews the scope and impact of engineering education today and makes several recommendations to address curriculum, policy, and funding issues. The book also analyzes a number of K-12 engineering curricula in depth and discusses what is known from the cognitive sciences about how children learn engineering-related concepts and skills. Engineering in K-12 Education will serve as a reference for science, technology, engineering, and math educators, policy makers, employers, and others concerned about the development of the country's technical workforce. The book will also prove useful to educational researchers, cognitive scientists, advocates for greater public understanding of engineering, and those working to boost technological and scientific literacy.

http://www.nmu.edu/seaborg/sites/DrupalSeaborg/files/UserFiles/Files/NGSS/Engineering_in_k-12_education-_Understanding_the_status_and_improving_the_prospects.pdf

Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects.

The conceptual complexity of problems was manipulated to probe the limits of human information processing capacity. Participants were asked to interpret graphically displayed statistical interactions. In such problems, all independent variables need to be considered together, so that decomposition into smaller subtasks is constrained, and thus the order of the interaction directly determines conceptual complexity. As the order of the interaction increases, the number of variables increases. Results showed a significant decline in accuracy and speed of solution from three-way to four-way interactions. Furthermore, performance on a five-way interaction was at chance level. These findings suggest that a structure defined on four variables is at the limit of human processing capacity.

How Many Variables Can Humans Process

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED354067.pdf

Cognitive Science Questions for Cognitive Development: The Concepts of Learning, Analogy, and Capacity.

This study aimed to create an understanding of how Engineering students use online lecture recordings (Lectopia) as a part of their learning toolkit, so as to better assist staff concerned about the negative consequences of introducing Lectopia into their course. Online surveys were given to third year civil and chemical Engineering students, twice throughout the semester, recording both quantitative and qualitative data regarding the amount of lectures attended, the reasons for non-attendance, the amount of Lectopia viewed, and the usefulness of Lectopia. The answers to these questions were related to exam marks for each student. The results show that the effects of viewing Lectopia and Lecture attendance interact; i.e. neither variable alone can explain student marks, and that both are comparatively effective forms of student engagement. However, lower grades were found for students who both attended most lectures and viewed over half of the Lectopia. Analysis of student comments suggests that this was due to factors such as ability to concentrate in class and clarity of the lecture. Together with lecture attendance and Lectopia viewing, these factors are described within a 'student engagement model' of learning, which is presented in contrast to the implicit 'student attendance' model currently underpinning beliefs regarding the importance of lecture attendance to student learning.

More than one pathway to success: Lecture attendance, Lectopia viewing and exam performance in large Engineering classes

This chapter describes a consistent view of executive control. It offers evidence that a major function of an executive is to support relational processing involved in planning, reasoning and comprehension. Humans are generally limited to relating four variables in a cognitive representation, though a minority of adults can relate five variables. There is also mounting neurocortical evidence for frontal-parietal activity in representing and processing relations and this activity seems to be related to relational complexity. Meanwhile, the representational rank metric integrates all levels of cognitive complexity into seven levels from subsymbolic (Rank 0) to the highest levels of symbolic representation (Rank 7).

Relational processing is fundamental to the central executive and it is limited to four variables

This case study presents the flipped classroom (FC) as a framework for a large first-year fundamental engineering practice course (ENGG1200). The aim was to develop student engineers who would leave the course with both the required academic knowledge of materials engineering and the practitioner skills required to apply this knowledge to real-world practices including design, problem-solving, modelling, and professional skills. Using a design approach and drawing on relevant research, a learning environment was constructed whose architecture comprised an integrated set of learning components that would develop within our students the internal mechanisms required for demonstrating these skills. A central component of the learning environment was an authentic open-ended design project that was completed by multidisciplinary teams. Implementation of the course using a FC framework allowed contact time with students to be used for hands-on workshops that developed and scaffolded many of the practitioner skills necessary for the design project. Out-of-class hours were used by students for acquiring the necessary academic knowledge required for the projects, supported by the online learning environment that included modules and quizzes, an organisational tool (the Learning Pathway), reflections, and extensive additional resources. The course design process, the design solution, and the evaluation of the course architecture are described in this chapter along with the characteristics that enabled the learning goals to be achieved. Evaluation revealed two main clusters of associated activities: one around the online learning activities and the other around the hands-on teamwork activities. These clusters were consistent with the design aim of using the course activities to develop a set of internal mechanisms within students such as materials knowledge, self-management, teamwork, and hands-on skills. Furthermore, evaluation of student reflections indicates that students did indeed develop knowledge and skills in these areas as well as modelling, problem-solving, and communication and that they linked concepts with practice. Many aspects of the course design process described here are transferrable to other disciplines aiming to facilitate authentic learning activities using FC approaches.

Julie McCredden

Papers

How Many Variables Can Humans Process

Cognitive Science Questions for Cognitive Development: The Concepts of Learning, Analogy, and Capacity.

More than one pathway to success: Lecture attendance, Lectopia viewing and exam performance in large Engineering classes

Relational processing is fundamental to the central executive and it is limited to four variables

Designing an Active Learning Environment Architecture Within a Flipped Classroom for Developing First Year Student Engineers