Impact of instructor intervention on the conceptual understanding of undergraduate engineering students working in a group

Rajarathinam, Robin Jephthah

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/110736 Copy

Description

Title

Impact of instructor intervention on the conceptual understanding of undergraduate engineering students working in a group

Author(s)

Rajarathinam, Robin Jephthah

Issue Date

2021-04-27

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Mercier, Emma

Committee Member(s)

• Goldstein, Molly Hathaway
• Tissenbaum, Michael

Department of Study

Curriculum and Instruction

Discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• monitoring
• intervention
• conceptual understanding
• collaboration
• CSCL

Abstract

While there are various studies on how instructors’ intervention impacts the group work of students, there is little research on what should be the goal of an intervention and how the corresponding interaction pattern flows from it. This preliminary study examines interaction patterns between instructors and students during an intervention and how they impact the conceptual understanding of the students. Video data was drawn from four discussion sections in a required undergraduate engineering course involving two teaching assistants (TA) and four course assistants (CA). To achieve this, I analyzed how different instructors intervene in groups of students during different scenarios. I draw conclusions on how the interaction pattern of the instructor and the students enables the intervention to be focused on the conceptual understanding of the task and what could potentially influence these interaction patterns. The study showed that the TAs observation of students before intervention does affect the interaction between TA and students. Group discourse around conceptual understanding during the intervention did not significantly impact the interaction but a high correlation between conceptual understanding discourse and teacher-student interaction suggests a further need for research on the topic.

Graduation Semester

2021-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110736

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2021 Robin Jephthah Rajarathinam

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