Open this publication in new window or tab >>2024 (English)In: Education and new developments 2024: Volume 1 / [ed] Mafalda Carmo, Lisboa: inScience Press, 2024, Vol. 1, p. 213-217Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Experiences from the authors' teaching indicate that students are becoming less focused on educational exploration and critical thinking. In parallel, Broo, Kaynak, and Sait (2022) highlight that future engineers must be fluent in different technologies, methods, and methodologies. Hence, the fast changes that take place require a highly dynamic capability among the workforce of tomorrow, which is opposite to many students' behavior in teaching and courses. This sheds light on Project Based Learning, in its essence, student-centred and with a dynamic approach to teaching where students study real-world problems and challenges (Kokotsaki, Menzies, et al. 2016). Similarities exist with Problem-based earning, where complex real-world problems are also at the centre to promote student learning. Bothhese concepts can promote the development of critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities,communication skills, and the possibility of working in groups (see, for example, De Graaf and Kolmos, 2003). This research report documented experiences involved in moving from a more traditional teaching approach into a more project-based approach regarding a course in construction management, undertaken four times with a new structure in which a problem-based approach was developed. One of the key issues at hand with the course was to develop it and stimulate students interest in the course subject, i.e., intrinsic motivation (Entwistle, 2009), motivation that comes from “interest in what is being learned and feelings of pleasure derived from it” (pp 20), and not from external rewards (extrinsic motivation). Based on previous experiences from project-based learning, course material has been developed in four rounds, where each course provided feedback to develop the course further. The course focused on an already conducted construction project, which was modified for each round so the students could create new frames for the project. Feedback was received during the course, and individually, students at the end of the course provided feedback to coming rounds. The results from this development show interesting challenges in teaching regarding the balance between showing results from the actual project vs. stimulation of creativity among students, with a clear conclusion that age, and work experience positively affect how the students execute the projects. It also directly shows the significance of the course framing and the variation of project set-ups in the course. Our findings also show values in PBL for students’ ability to handle changes in a world with many insecure influences. © 2024 inScience Press
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Lisboa: inScience Press, 2024
Series
Education and new developments, ISSN 2184-044X, E-ISSN 2184-1489
Keywords
Problem-based learning, Project-based learning, Intrinsic motivation, Flexible learning
National Category
Other Civil Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-53889 (URN)978-989-35106-9-8 (ISBN)
Conference
International Conference on Education and New Developments (END) 2024, Porto, Portugal, 15-17 June, 2024
2024-06-172024-06-172024-07-09Bibliographically approved