title: Correlation between engineering students’ perceptions of sustainability and their understanding of the threshold concepts in their disciplines

authors: Enteshari, Sina

subjects: sustainability

abstract: CONTEXT 
Sustainability is an important concept in engineering education. Although it is not a new idea in engineering education, its implementation presents a number of obstacles. To support curriculum development, we looked into the fundamental and transformative learning in sustainability, known as 'threshold concepts’. A series of concepts that has the ability to transform the way students perceive sustainability in their disciplines. In this study, we attempt to answer the question, how do engineering students perceive and understand sustainability within the context of their discipline's core concepts?

PURPOSE OR GOAL
Using threshold concept theory, we investigated how students in various engineering disciplines perceive sustainability and identified what they thought to be the crucial sustainability principle in their disciplines. We hoped to improve sustainability engineering education initiatives and promote the incorporation of sustainability concepts into various engineering disciplines' curricula by changing students' and educators' perceptions of sustainability.

APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS 
The study used a mixed-methods approach, which included both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques. A structured survey was distributed to students from a variety of disciplines, including civil, software, electronics, mechanical, chemical, and material processing engineering. In addition to the survey, qualitative data were gathered through interviews with a subset of these students, allowing for a more in-depth exploration of individual perspectives. The analysis also included a review of first-year engineering students' reflective essays and reports, which provided additional qualitative insights into their perspectives on sustainability.

OUTCOMES 
Our research found that the content of sustainability courses significantly shapes students' overall understanding of sustainability and its relevance to their specific discipline. A key hurdle in integrating sustainability into engineering education is its perceived irrelevance. Students favoured content that's tailored to their discipline, aligning with their existing discipline specific threshold concepts. For instance, software engineering students felt that general sustainability courses didn't apply to them, preferring courses that incorporate sustainability in a way that's directly relevant to them. They aimed to gain knowledge that would complement and expand upon their prior studies.

CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY 
Our study revealed that sustainability-related threshold concepts are distinct for each discipline, highlighting the need for customised approaches to foster engagement and understanding. These insights can help educators craft teaching strategies that enhance students' grasp of these concepts and promote the application of sustainable practices within their disciplines. A major difficulty in integrating sustainability into engineering education was the lack of discipline-specific content, leading many students to overlook sustainability concepts that didn't directly relate to their studies.

text: Correlation between engineering students’ perceptions of sustainability and their understanding of the threshold concepts in their disciplines CONTEXT 
Sustainability is an important concept in engineering education. Although it is not a new idea in engineering education, its implementation presents a number of obstacles. To support curriculum development, we looked into the fundamental and transformative learning in sustainability, known as 'threshold concepts’. A series of concepts that has the ability to transform the way students perceive sustainability in their disciplines. In this study, we attempt to answer the question, how do engineering students perceive and understand sustainability within the context of their discipline's core concepts?

PURPOSE OR GOAL
Using threshold concept theory, we investigated how students in various engineering disciplines perceive sustainability and identified what they thought to be the crucial sustainability principle in their disciplines. We hoped to improve sustainability engineering education initiatives and promote the incorporation of sustainability concepts into various engineering disciplines' curricula by changing students' and educators' perceptions of sustainability.

APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS 
The study used a mixed-methods approach, which included both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques. A structured survey was distributed to students from a variety of disciplines, including civil, software, electronics, mechanical, chemical, and material processing engineering. In addition to the survey, qualitative data were gathered through interviews with a subset of these students, allowing for a more in-depth exploration of individual perspectives. The analysis also included a review of first-year engineering students' reflective essays and reports, which provided additional qualitative insights into their perspectives on sustainability.

OUTCOMES 
Our research found that the content of sustainability courses significantly shapes students' overall understanding of sustainability and its relevance to their specific discipline. A key hurdle in integrating sustainability into engineering education is its perceived irrelevance. Students favoured content that's tailored to their discipline, aligning with their existing discipline specific threshold concepts. For instance, software engineering students felt that general sustainability courses didn't apply to them, preferring courses that incorporate sustainability in a way that's directly relevant to them. They aimed to gain knowledge that would complement and expand upon their prior studies.

CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY 
Our study revealed that sustainability-related threshold concepts are distinct for each discipline, highlighting the need for customised approaches to foster engagement and understanding. These insights can help educators craft teaching strategies that enhance students' grasp of these concepts and promote the application of sustainable practices within their disciplines. A major difficulty in integrating sustainability into engineering education was the lack of discipline-specific content, leading many students to overlook sustainability concepts that didn't directly relate to their studies.

year: 2024

title: The relative effectiveness of different forms of microteaching incorporating a sensitisation approach

authors: Katterns, Robert

abstract: This study examined the relative effectiveness of several different forms of microteaching as compared with equivalent courses in observation-analysis of teaching and regular pre-service study in the principles of teaching. The microteaching courses incorporated a sensitisation, rather than a skills-training, approach and emphasised the usefulness of various questioning strategies and the development of sensitive and flexible control of a repertoire of questioning skills. The subjects were 96 student teachers in the primary school division of a New Zealand Teachers College.
Three sets of treatments were studied as interrelated parts of an overall research design. First, an examination was made of the relative effects on teaching performance of microteaching, observation-analysis and regular coursework. Secondly, comparisons were made of the effects of different media (video and audiotape) in the microteaching and observation-analysis programmes. Thirdly, a study was made of the relative effects of microteaching treatments involving different “pupils” (children or student teacher peers), different media (video or audiotape), different question types to be practised (middle or high order), and various combinations of these treatments.
Data on subjects’ cognitive questioning skills and talk patterns were obtained by analysing transcripts of discussion lessons taken before and after treatment. The overall and differential effects of treatments in each research design on these behavioural variables were tested by the use of correlated t tests, and analysis of variance and covariance procedures, respectively. In addition, the reaction of microteaching and observation-analysis participants to their learning experiences was investigated by means of opinion questionnaires.
Observation-analysis and regular coursework both produced some significant changes in teaching performance. Microteaching, however, was significantly more effective than either of these two treatments in helping student teachers to increase fluency-control in questioning, to develop fewer but more searching discussion episodes through the use of high order initial and probing questions, to decrease the amount of teacher talk, and to minimise questioning that leads to simple yes/no answers. Microteaching also appeared superior to regular coursework in reducing the tendency to repeat pupil responses, and in increasing unsolicited pupil answering and pupil-to-pupil dialogue. A similar pattern of results favouring microteaching was evident in comparisons made between the two media treatments in microteaching and observation-analysis, and between these treatments and regular coursework.
The most striking findings in the study, however, were the equivalent effects overall of the different pupil, media and question type treatments in microteaching, and of the various combinations of these treatments. In the development of questioning skills in the small group discussion situation, these results suggest that a Teachers College might reduce the logistic, resource and time problems in the provision of microteaching by having students: (i) teach their peers instead of children; (ii) use audiotape instead of videotape to support analysis of teaching and feedback activities; and (iii) practise some types of questions only while learning to use other questioning skills ‘vicariously’ through observing them being used by fellow microteachers.

text: The relative effectiveness of different forms of microteaching incorporating a sensitisation approach This study examined the relative effectiveness of several different forms of microteaching as compared with equivalent courses in observation-analysis of teaching and regular pre-service study in the principles of teaching. The microteaching courses incorporated a sensitisation, rather than a skills-training, approach and emphasised the usefulness of various questioning strategies and the development of sensitive and flexible control of a repertoire of questioning skills. The subjects were 96 student teachers in the primary school division of a New Zealand Teachers College.
Three sets of treatments were studied as interrelated parts of an overall research design. First, an examination was made of the relative effects on teaching performance of microteaching, observation-analysis and regular coursework. Secondly, comparisons were made of the effects of different media (video and audiotape) in the microteaching and observation-analysis programmes. Thirdly, a study was made of the relative effects of microteaching treatments involving different “pupils” (children or student teacher peers), different media (video or audiotape), different question types to be practised (middle or high order), and various combinations of these treatments.
Data on subjects’ cognitive questioning skills and talk patterns were obtained by analysing transcripts of discussion lessons taken before and after treatment. The overall and differential effects of treatments in each research design on these behavioural variables were tested by the use of correlated t tests, and analysis of variance and covariance procedures, respectively. In addition, the reaction of microteaching and observation-analysis participants to their learning experiences was investigated by means of opinion questionnaires.
Observation-analysis and regular coursework both produced some significant changes in teaching performance. Microteaching, however, was significantly more effective than either of these two treatments in helping student teachers to increase fluency-control in questioning, to develop fewer but more searching discussion episodes through the use of high order initial and probing questions, to decrease the amount of teacher talk, and to minimise questioning that leads to simple yes/no answers. Microteaching also appeared superior to regular coursework in reducing the tendency to repeat pupil responses, and in increasing unsolicited pupil answering and pupil-to-pupil dialogue. A similar pattern of results favouring microteaching was evident in comparisons made between the two media treatments in microteaching and observation-analysis, and between these treatments and regular coursework.
The most striking findings in the study, however, were the equivalent effects overall of the different pupil, media and question type treatments in microteaching, and of the various combinations of these treatments. In the development of questioning skills in the small group discussion situation, these results suggest that a Teachers College might reduce the logistic, resource and time problems in the provision of microteaching by having students: (i) teach their peers instead of children; (ii) use audiotape instead of videotape to support analysis of teaching and feedback activities; and (iii) practise some types of questions only while learning to use other questioning skills ‘vicariously’ through observing them being used by fellow microteachers.

year: 1977

title: Collaborative relationships in practice: Possibilities and challenges

authors: Mitchell, Linda

subjects: education

abstract: The following three papers examine what collaboration is happening in New Zealand’s early childhood education services currently, and provide exemplars of collaboration in three key areas: with parents and whänau; with Mäori, iwi and marae; and with local Pacific and other ethnic communities. We emphasise some differences in needs and priorities for different service types, and challenges for each. Finally, we discuss the extent to which government and umbrella group systems and policies support early childhood education services to create collaborative relationships. These papers draw from the findings of four recent research projects: An Evaluation of the Initial Uses and Impact of Equity Funding; Quality in Parent/Whänau-led Services; phase 1 of a Locality-based Evaluation of Pathways to the Future – Ngä Huarahi Arataki; and NZCER’s national survey of early childhood education services carried out in late 2003 and early 2004.

text: Collaborative relationships in practice: Possibilities and challenges The following three papers examine what collaboration is happening in New Zealand’s early childhood education services currently, and provide exemplars of collaboration in three key areas: with parents and whänau; with Mäori, iwi and marae; and with local Pacific and other ethnic communities. We emphasise some differences in needs and priorities for different service types, and challenges for each. Finally, we discuss the extent to which government and umbrella group systems and policies support early childhood education services to create collaborative relationships. These papers draw from the findings of four recent research projects: An Evaluation of the Initial Uses and Impact of Equity Funding; Quality in Parent/Whänau-led Services; phase 1 of a Locality-based Evaluation of Pathways to the Future – Ngä Huarahi Arataki; and NZCER’s national survey of early childhood education services carried out in late 2003 and early 2004.

year: 2006