The Glass Box Method to optimise spatial visualisation and self-directed learning in Engineering Graphics and Design students

Abstract

Engineering Graphics and Design (EGD) student teachers often need help converting orthographic projection drawings into sectional isometric drawings. This can be ascribed to a lack of spatial visualisation skills. Literature on the struggles South African EGD educators and students face, along with possible solutions for how the subject might be improved, is scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to determine and delineate the impact of the Glass Box Method with3D printed models as a teaching and learning aid on EGD in higher education to optimise student teachers' understanding of sectional isometric drawings while improving their spatial visualisation skills. EGD student teachers must be masters of spatial visualisation skills, as they have to interpret and comprehend the various topics of the curriculum to enable them to educate future EGD learners effectively. Furthermore, for students to effectively develop solutions to real-world problems, they must become self-directed. To open the door for these students' future use of self directed learning (SDL) as a critical competence, I (the module lecturer) further endeavoured to sensitise first-year EGD student teachers to the value and benefits of SDL. A mixed-methodsdesign-based methodology (QUAL-quan), based on Sandoval's (2014) four-phase design-based process, was employed to explore and define how improvements could be made to the teaching and learning of EGD. The study population consisted of first-year Engineering Graphics and Design Education (EGDE) students at the Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University. Although there was no practical improvement in the students' spatial visualisation skills, according to the quantitative data, the qualitative findings showed that the students did, however, believe that after the intervention, they better comprehended the conversion of orthographic projection into sectional isometric drawings. This study could have yielded more favourable results if the intervention had been implemented over a more extended period and if technical selection tests were a prerequisite for all education students who wanted to register for the EGDE module in higher education. The qualitative findings further showed that my efforts to sensitise first-year students to the value and benefits of SDL were received positively by students and that some students subsequently started implementing SDL strategies independently.