The purpose of this research was to ascertain whether there had been any improvement in students' metacognitive and critical thinking skills through the development of the 'Teaching Factory Based on Troubleshooting' (TEFA-T) model in automotive vocational learning. The research had both quantitative and qualitative components and applied the 4D…

Student interventionists have been utilized as change agents in a variety of contexts to improve the academic, social, and communicative behaviors of target students. A strong literature base supports the use of peers in academic interventions such as peer tutoring, as well as in behavioral interventions such as peer-mediated Check-In/Check-Out,…

In Robotics Education (RE), the hands-on experience with troubleshooting problems is seen as a good catalyst to enhance the participants' problem-solving skills. Based on the pedagogical technique of collaborative learning and pair programming, pair learning is an emerging and potential method in RE, which means that students collaborate in pairs…

Background and Context: Encouraging undergraduate programming students to think more about their software development processes is challenging. Most programming courses focus on coding skill development and mastering programming language features; subsequently software development processes (e.g. planning, code commenting, and error debugging) are…

Undergraduate research experiences are excellent opportunities to engage students in science alongside experienced scientists, but at large institutions, it is challenging to accommodate all students. To address and engage a larger number of students, we developed a modular laboratory course based on the course-based undergraduate research…

In face-to-face conversations, speaker transitions (or hand-offs) are typically seamless. In computer-mediated communication settings, speaker hand-offs can be a bit more challenging. This paper presents the results of a study of audio communication problems that occur in an online synchronous course, and how, and by whom, those problems are…

Instruction in analog electronics is an integral component of many physics and engineering programs, and is typically covered in courses beyond the first year. While extensive research has been conducted on student understanding of introductory electric circuits, to date there has been relatively little research on student learning of analog…

We explore the overlap of two nationally recognized learning outcomes for physics lab courses, namely, the ability to model experimental systems and the ability to troubleshoot a malfunctioning apparatus. Modeling and troubleshooting are both nonlinear, recursive processes that involve using models to inform revisions to an apparatus. To probe the…

This paper aims to provide teachers with a practical guide to working in an IT enabled classroom. The paper outlines four central practical examples, with teacher reflections, of what was required in starting an actual IT enabled English listening & speaking program. The classroom environment described is board-less, meaning the teacher's…

This study compared students' learning in troubleshooting and problem solving activities. The troubleshooting activities provided students with solutions to conceptual problems in the form of refutation texts; namely, solutions that portray common misconceptions, refute them, and then present the accepted scientific ideas. They required students…

In this exploratory qualitative study, we describe instructors' self-reported practices for teaching and assessing students' ability to troubleshoot in electronics lab courses. We collected audio data from interviews with 20 electronics instructors from 18 institutions that varied by size, selectivity, and other factors. In addition to describing…

The implementation of troubleshooting within a pre-existing expository laboratory is described and evaluated. Student feedback indicated that troubleshooting activities are highly effective in providing a hands-on opportunity to exercise problem-solving skills and gain a better understanding of the whole process in addition to effectively…

A joint learning activity in process control is presented, in the context of a distance collaboration between engineering and technical-level students, in a similar fashion as current practices in the industry involving distance coordination and troubleshooting. The necessary infrastructure and the setup used are first detailed, followed by a…

Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) are the subject of increasing interest for educators and trainers. This article reports on a longitudinal project that seeks to establish a virtual agile software development workshop hosted in the Open Wonderland MUVE, designed to help learners to understand the basic principles of some core agile software…

This paper describes a tutorial programme developed at the University of Western Australia (UWA) to enhance medical students' learning processes within problem-based learning contexts. The programme encourages students to use more effective learning approaches by scaffolding the development of effective problem-solving strategies, and by reducing…