Confirmation of Candidature – PhD – Oral Presentation
Mahbub Hasan
University students’ conceptions of and approaches to project-based learning (PBL) in the context of engineering education: a phenomenographic inquiry
Abstract
This research will investigate how engineering students conceptualise and enact project-based learning (PBL). How students understand the technical concepts of engineering is an area of concern among academics. Projects are commonly integrated into regular engineering courses with the idea that students construct understanding of concepts through a process of investigation and collaboration. The study will explore how students approach learning in this environment by focusing on students’ use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to complete their projects. A phenomenographic method will be adopted to identify qualitatively different conceptions and approaches. Data will be collected by means of semi-structured in-depth interviews and by analysing students reports. Fifteen to twenty master students who have enrolled in a project-based course at the Queensland University Technology (QUT) will be selected for an interview. Data will be analysed from students’ perspective which is a distinct feature of phenomenography. Through such analysis, this study will report the conceptions through a referential and a structural aspect of learning. The approaches will be investigated using an intention-strategy framework. Hence, it contributes to an understanding of students’ experience of PBL. The findings will help teachers, educators and curriculum planners to understand how students design investigations, collect and analyse data, use technology, make projects and share ideas.
Panel: Dr Jana Visnovska and Dr Obaid Hamid (Chair)
Principal Advisor: Dr Tony Wright
Associate Advisor/s: Dr Azharul Karim
Date Wednesday 19 October 2016
Time 10.00am to 11.00am
Room 603
Location Social Science Building 24
St Lucia Campus
.