Assessment Methods for Service-Learning Projects in Engineering in Higher Education: A Systematic Review.

Service-learning (SL) helps engineering students to be involved in community activities and to be motivated by their studies. Although several reviews and research studies have been published about SL, it is not widespread in sciences and engineering at the university level. The purpose of this research is to analyze the different community services or projects where SL is implemented by engineering students and faculty and to identify the procedures that were usually implemented to assess SL-based courses and activities. Assessment could be considered as the evaluation of a specific module and the engineering competencies, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the SL program, the assessment of the participation of the student in those programs, and the assessment of whether students have achieved certain outcomes or gained specific skills. We conducted a systematic review with a search in three scientific databases: Scopus, Science Direct, and ERIC educational database to analyze the assessment methods and what that assessment covers. From 14,107 publications related to SL, 120 documents were analyzed to inform the conclusions of this study. We found that SL is widely used in several universities as experiential education, and it is considered an academic activity. The most widely used assessment technique is a survey to evaluate the engagement and attitudes of students and, to a lesser extent, teamwork presentations.

Effectiveness of Self-Regulation and Serious Games for Learning STEM Knowledge in Primary Education / Efectividad de la Autorregulación y los Serious Games Para el Aprendizaje de Conocimientos STEM en Educación Primaria

BACKGROUND: The learning of scientific and technological subjects is fundamental in the society of the 21st century. However, a gender gap is detected in the choice of degrees in these subjects. Recent studies indicate the need to take action from the primary education stage to increase student motivation towards these disciplines. METHODS: We worked with a sample of 147 students in the final years of Primary Education. SRL and serious games were applied in initial tasks to computer programming. The objectives were to study the influence of gender, environment and academic level variables on the results in the resolution of initial programming tasks and on student satisfaction with their completion. RESULTS: The mean level of results in these tasks was high (8 out of 10). However, significant differences were found for gender, academic level, and the covariate age. With respect to satisfaction, no significant differences were found except in the continuity of work. CONCLUSIONS: The use of SRL and serious play tasks promotes good levels of performance and satisfaction in all students, although differences in favour of the male gender are detected

ANTECEDENTES: el aprendizaje de materias científico-tecnológicas es fundamental en la sociedad del s. XXI. Si bien, se detecta una brecha de género en la elección de titulaciones en estas materias. Estudios recientes indican la necesidad de realizar acciones desde la etapa de Educación Primaria para aumentar la motivación de los estudiantes hacia estas disciplinas. MÉTODO: se trabajó con una muestra de 147 estudiantes de los últimos cursos de Educación Primaria. Se aplicó SRL y serious games en tareas de inicio a la programación informática. Los objetivos fueron estudiar la influencia de las variables género, entorno y nivel académico sobre los resultados en la resolución de tareas de inicio a la programación y en la satisfacción de los estudiantes con su realización. RESULTADOS: el nivel medio de resultados en estas tareas fue alto (8 sobre 10). Sin embargo, se hallaron diferencias significativas respecto de las variables género, nivel académico y efectos de la covariable edad. Relativo de la satisfacción no se hallaron diferencias significativas salvo en la continuidad de trabajo. CONCLUSIONES: la utilización de SRL y de tareas de juego serios potencia buenos niveles de rendimiento y de satisfacción en todos los estudiantes, aunque se detectan diferencias a favor del género masculino

Observation of Metacognitive Skills in Natural Environments: A Longitudinal Study With Mixed Methods.

Recent studies pointing to evaluation methods in natural environments suggest that their use in the analysis of metacognitive skills provides more precise information than the use of off-line evaluation methods. In this research, mixed methods are used over one academic year for the evaluation of the metacognitive skills that students of Secondary Education apply to solve physics problems. The objectives of this study are to analyze the use of metacognitive skills in natural environments and to study behavioral patterns of student learning through a longitudinal study. A total of 509 recordings of think-aloud protocols are analyzed through the categorization of the responses (liquefying) and the protocol of Van der Stel and Veenman for the analysis of the quality of metacognitive skills. Fewer conceptual errors and less uncertainty over vocabulary were noted during the academic year. Nevertheless, a degree of ambiguity persisted in the understanding of physics concepts. The metacognitive skills of Orientation and Planning were used more than any others. The technique of graph analysis is also applied, to establish the patterns of behavior of each student throughout the academic year. Different patterns were found, the analysis of which helped to identify academically challenged and at-risk students. The use of mixed observation techniques and graph analysis facilitated information on the pace of learning of each student. Future studies will be directed at proposals for the automation of these evaluation techniques in natural learning environments.