Reflective team meetings: a learning experience for first-year engineering students in joint projects

Abstract

The aim of this research was to report on reflective team meetings as a learning experience for first-year engineering students in joint projects. To some extent, working in joint projects is new to first-year students since they had been exposed mainly to the direct teaching method in a well-defined school environment previously, which required of them to remember instead of to construct knowledge and manage their learning. Moreover, in school settings, students are not introduced to solving problems collaboratively. In engineering, addressing problem-based projects in teams requires frequent formal meetings to enable students to make decisions, coordinate tasks and reflect on their actions. Reflection as a rigorous intellectual and emotional action takes time to develop and is a means of guiding and supporting students' collaboration and professional practice. Reflective practices are of particular importance when addressing ill-structured problems in engineering, which have multiple, sometimes conflicting goals, are solved in different ways, and sometimes require extensive collaboration where knowledge is distributed among team members. A qualitative research methodology was employed. The population consisted of380 first-year engineering students who enrolled in 2016 for a compulsory introductory course, which covered team collaboration and meeting procedures, assessment, safety and security, project management and practical workshop activities. Data collection comprised students' reflective project sheets and written narratives regarding their experiences. Data were manually analyzed, coded and organized into themes. Results indicated that, although students initially experienced challenges, such as time constraints and management of teams, formal team meetings provided the likelihood of developing reflective skills as a learning experience in joint projects. Implications for engineering education are also highlighted