Work in progress - Student task interpretation, design planning, and cognitive strategies in engineering design project: An exploratory study for Grades 9-12

This work in progress evaluates Grades 9-12 students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies during an engineering design project. The specific focus of this study is on student task interpretation and its relation to planning and cognitive strategies in engineering design activity. The two research questions guiding this study are: (1) to what degree does students’ interpretation of the design task is reflected on their working plans and selected cognitive strategies? and (2) how those strategies relate to students’ design performance? The subjects for this study are selected from students enrolled in the Architectural and Robotic design classes at a high school in Colorado this spring 2011 semester. Thirty students are expected to participate in the study. Survey questionnaire and Web-based engineering design journal writing will be used to capture students’ metacognition. Students’ perception about task interpretation, planning, cognitive, and self-regulating strategies, and performance criteria will be collected through the questionnaire. Except for the performance criteria, data for these metacognitive variables will also be collected through students’ engineering design journal. A rubric will be used for the teacher to grade the students’ design performance. Descriptive statistics and graphical views will be used to analyze the survey. Scoring rubric will be used to analyze journal entries. Index Terms – Engineering Design, Grades 9-12, Metacognition, Self-Regulated Learning.