PLEASE, NO POWERPOINT! TEACHING STRATEGIES THAT WORK AND THOSE THAT DO NOT IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

摘要

Much has been said about retention of engineering students in the 21 century. Among the many studies attempting to identify successful teaching techniques and methods for STEM disciplines, few conceptualize success as understanding the subject, getting reasonable good grades but also as remembering key concepts in the future. There are even fewer studies that have asked students directly questions such as what teaching strategies have impacted them the most? Which professors have been successful making the subject clear and understandable to them and why? What did they do? As well as what would they recommend instructors to avoid? We discuss the results of a comprehensive focus group study being undertaken at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez among Industrial Engineering freshmen to the fifth year students. We asked students what they remember about professors that they feel taught them the most, and also of those that did not contribute much to their "engineering education." Among the findings, a prevalence of rejection towards the use of Power Point presentations was revealed. Other findings and conclusions for future research are also discussed surrounding student-centrism vs. teacher-centrism.