The case of a short intervention study of argumentative writing in engineering at two Colombian universities: less is more, 2019
Engineering professionals need to employ argumentative skills to support
their decisions. This re... more Engineering professionals need to employ argumentative skills to support their decisions. This research presents the findings of an intervention that was designed and implemented at two universities in Colombia, South America, to help students enhance their written argumentative skills through essays on ethical dilemmas. Engineering professors included explanations based on modelled examples that showed adequate argumentation and provided feedback to students. This experience included a pre-test, post-test and a brief intervention based on problembased learning (PBL). Results show that students improved in essay aspects such as the introduction, presenting and supporting a thesis, including evidence with proper references and the creation of a conclusion. Standardized national test results also support the benefits of this approach.
Coherence and Cohesion Issues in Argumentation Documents Written by Engineering Students, 2018
Coherence and cohesion in written texts are of great importance to efficiently communicate the ma... more Coherence and cohesion in written texts are of great importance to efficiently communicate the main ideas that the author wants to convey to the reader. However, it has been previously shown that not only engineering students have deficiencies in these aspects, but also, evaluating these aspects is of great difficulty. For this reason, this research focuses on the application of a methodology to assess the coherence and cohesion of texts written by engineering students of several semesters in careers such as computer systems, electrical and electronics engineering. To do this, an evaluation instrument was created; this instrument allows measuring the performance on these aspects to be measured in an isolated manner in order to clearly identify the difficulties that students have when writing texts. Results show that, although several students manage to present good written documents, there are also many problems in aspects such as the connection of the text, the handling of exophoric and endophoric references, and providing enough information to argue.
This paper presents the results of the first phase of the project that was developed in order to ... more This paper presents the results of the first phase of the project that was developed in order to enhance oral and written communication skills in students coursing the last semester in engineering at the Capstone Design curse. At this level the student has completed both the basic training cycle (in which he had to study the subjects Competence Communicative 1 and 2) as the professional core and therefore expected, according to criterion 5 ABET, that a student is ready to finish off your formation with a design experience that includes multiple stages whose reach extends, in some cases, the implementation of solutions. During initial phase of the project was developed an advanced specific training to professors to provide them tools to understand the problems of oral and written expression within students. At this same stage an opinion poll was applied to students in order to know their impressions of the importance of communication skills in engineering and in particular, in the course Capstone Design. As well, a rubric was designed so that teachers could evaluate the communication skills in this first group. The Rubric designed allows rating on a scale of 5 points the quality of different aspects of communicative competence of students in relation to their Final Report. The Rubric was created from the enumeration of oral and written aspects that are deemed essential for proper support of a Final Report of a technology project. The project is now in the second phase, which consists in training for professors, class lectures and tutorials for students. Preliminary results presented in this report show that students are fully aware of the importance and need to develop better oral and written transferable skills in not only the Capstone Design class, but also all along their career.
Chat is one of the Internet's services that have had a particularly stro... more Chat is one of the Internet's services that have had a particularly strong influence on young people, and its effects on their skills development is worthy of investigation. This study focuses on the possible consequences of the use of Chat on cognitive processes. More specifically, it evaluates the impact of frequent Chat use on the development of memory and on cognitive style. This research, exploratory in nature, began with an instrument for classifying 125 students in 5th to 8th grade at schools in Chile, according to their Chat use ...
The influence of information and communication technologies (ICT) on cognitive skills, particular... more The influence of information and communication technologies (ICT) on cognitive skills, particularly on those of young people, is a topic of great interest. This paper examines the effect of ICT on the cognitive processes of memory and attention based on research with schoolchildren aged 12 and 13.
The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact of information and communication technolog... more The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact of information and communication technologies use on seventh-grade students' visuo-spatial and working memory skills and whether the potential impact of ICT use on these skills interact with highschool level students' socioeconomic level and gender. 263 students were classified in different user types according to their self-reported use of ICT. The students took a workingmemory and a visual-spatial skills measure. We found differences in our test for ...
The findings of a previous study on the relationship between frequent use of information and comm... more The findings of a previous study on the relationship between frequent use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and cognitive skill development such as those related to memory and attention processes are extended via a two-way analysis of variance of the socio-economic level of the sectors where the students in the test sample attend school. The results indicate that although both socio-economic level and the type of technology used affected memory and attention scores, the impact of the type of ...
Abstract: Communication skills are very important for engineers, especially when they need to jus... more Abstract: Communication skills are very important for engineers, especially when they need to justify professional choices by developing arguments in written documents. Engineering students at Universidad del Norte learn how to write argumentative documents in the second semester. However, when students reach their senior year, their communication skills do not show their previous training. The paper presents preliminary results of a diagnosis of this skill in engineering students of different programs, different semesters and two different universities. The methodology for the diagnosis consisted in asking students to first read documents on a particular subject, and then, in the classroom, to write an argumentative essay about the same topic. All students used computers and submitted their essays digitally. The professors evaluated the essays by using a predefined rubric. Results show the students have a low level in academic writing and argument developing. Few students properly cited their sources and no essay fulfilled the minimum requirements for an argumentative document. Noticeably, even though all students employed word processor software, they did not use grammar or style check features. As a consequence, the research team believes that students may not be familiar with these tools. Additionally, students do not allow time for the text to settle before verifying the document, or they do not correct it before submission. Regarding formal aspects of the argument document, fifty percent of the students do not include a thesis in the introduction. Nonetheless, in most cases the research team identified some statements that could form or be understood as a pseudo-thesis. Essays in general lack evidences and facts to support the arguments. Moreover, most essays did not provide a conclusion where they clearly set the reader in a context and they did not resume the thesis.
Es un libro con investigaciones de aula de diversas disciplinas, entre las que se encuentran: ing... more Es un libro con investigaciones de aula de diversas disciplinas, entre las que se encuentran: ingenierías, relaciones internacionales, español, etc.
The case of a short intervention study of argumentative writing in engineering at two Colombian universities: less is more, 2019
Engineering professionals need to employ argumentative skills to support
their decisions. This re... more Engineering professionals need to employ argumentative skills to support their decisions. This research presents the findings of an intervention that was designed and implemented at two universities in Colombia, South America, to help students enhance their written argumentative skills through essays on ethical dilemmas. Engineering professors included explanations based on modelled examples that showed adequate argumentation and provided feedback to students. This experience included a pre-test, post-test and a brief intervention based on problembased learning (PBL). Results show that students improved in essay aspects such as the introduction, presenting and supporting a thesis, including evidence with proper references and the creation of a conclusion. Standardized national test results also support the benefits of this approach.
Coherence and Cohesion Issues in Argumentation Documents Written by Engineering Students, 2018
Coherence and cohesion in written texts are of great importance to efficiently communicate the ma... more Coherence and cohesion in written texts are of great importance to efficiently communicate the main ideas that the author wants to convey to the reader. However, it has been previously shown that not only engineering students have deficiencies in these aspects, but also, evaluating these aspects is of great difficulty. For this reason, this research focuses on the application of a methodology to assess the coherence and cohesion of texts written by engineering students of several semesters in careers such as computer systems, electrical and electronics engineering. To do this, an evaluation instrument was created; this instrument allows measuring the performance on these aspects to be measured in an isolated manner in order to clearly identify the difficulties that students have when writing texts. Results show that, although several students manage to present good written documents, there are also many problems in aspects such as the connection of the text, the handling of exophoric and endophoric references, and providing enough information to argue.
This paper presents the results of the first phase of the project that was developed in order to ... more This paper presents the results of the first phase of the project that was developed in order to enhance oral and written communication skills in students coursing the last semester in engineering at the Capstone Design curse. At this level the student has completed both the basic training cycle (in which he had to study the subjects Competence Communicative 1 and 2) as the professional core and therefore expected, according to criterion 5 ABET, that a student is ready to finish off your formation with a design experience that includes multiple stages whose reach extends, in some cases, the implementation of solutions. During initial phase of the project was developed an advanced specific training to professors to provide them tools to understand the problems of oral and written expression within students. At this same stage an opinion poll was applied to students in order to know their impressions of the importance of communication skills in engineering and in particular, in the course Capstone Design. As well, a rubric was designed so that teachers could evaluate the communication skills in this first group. The Rubric designed allows rating on a scale of 5 points the quality of different aspects of communicative competence of students in relation to their Final Report. The Rubric was created from the enumeration of oral and written aspects that are deemed essential for proper support of a Final Report of a technology project. The project is now in the second phase, which consists in training for professors, class lectures and tutorials for students. Preliminary results presented in this report show that students are fully aware of the importance and need to develop better oral and written transferable skills in not only the Capstone Design class, but also all along their career.
Chat is one of the Internet's services that have had a particularly stro... more Chat is one of the Internet's services that have had a particularly strong influence on young people, and its effects on their skills development is worthy of investigation. This study focuses on the possible consequences of the use of Chat on cognitive processes. More specifically, it evaluates the impact of frequent Chat use on the development of memory and on cognitive style. This research, exploratory in nature, began with an instrument for classifying 125 students in 5th to 8th grade at schools in Chile, according to their Chat use ...
The influence of information and communication technologies (ICT) on cognitive skills, particular... more The influence of information and communication technologies (ICT) on cognitive skills, particularly on those of young people, is a topic of great interest. This paper examines the effect of ICT on the cognitive processes of memory and attention based on research with schoolchildren aged 12 and 13.
The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact of information and communication technolog... more The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact of information and communication technologies use on seventh-grade students' visuo-spatial and working memory skills and whether the potential impact of ICT use on these skills interact with highschool level students' socioeconomic level and gender. 263 students were classified in different user types according to their self-reported use of ICT. The students took a workingmemory and a visual-spatial skills measure. We found differences in our test for ...
The findings of a previous study on the relationship between frequent use of information and comm... more The findings of a previous study on the relationship between frequent use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and cognitive skill development such as those related to memory and attention processes are extended via a two-way analysis of variance of the socio-economic level of the sectors where the students in the test sample attend school. The results indicate that although both socio-economic level and the type of technology used affected memory and attention scores, the impact of the type of ...
Abstract: Communication skills are very important for engineers, especially when they need to jus... more Abstract: Communication skills are very important for engineers, especially when they need to justify professional choices by developing arguments in written documents. Engineering students at Universidad del Norte learn how to write argumentative documents in the second semester. However, when students reach their senior year, their communication skills do not show their previous training. The paper presents preliminary results of a diagnosis of this skill in engineering students of different programs, different semesters and two different universities. The methodology for the diagnosis consisted in asking students to first read documents on a particular subject, and then, in the classroom, to write an argumentative essay about the same topic. All students used computers and submitted their essays digitally. The professors evaluated the essays by using a predefined rubric. Results show the students have a low level in academic writing and argument developing. Few students properly cited their sources and no essay fulfilled the minimum requirements for an argumentative document. Noticeably, even though all students employed word processor software, they did not use grammar or style check features. As a consequence, the research team believes that students may not be familiar with these tools. Additionally, students do not allow time for the text to settle before verifying the document, or they do not correct it before submission. Regarding formal aspects of the argument document, fifty percent of the students do not include a thesis in the introduction. Nonetheless, in most cases the research team identified some statements that could form or be understood as a pseudo-thesis. Essays in general lack evidences and facts to support the arguments. Moreover, most essays did not provide a conclusion where they clearly set the reader in a context and they did not resume the thesis.
Es un libro con investigaciones de aula de diversas disciplinas, entre las que se encuentran: ing... more Es un libro con investigaciones de aula de diversas disciplinas, entre las que se encuentran: ingenierías, relaciones internacionales, español, etc.
Uploads
their decisions. This research presents the findings of an intervention that
was designed and implemented at two universities in Colombia, South
America, to help students enhance their written argumentative skills
through essays on ethical dilemmas. Engineering professors included
explanations based on modelled examples that showed adequate
argumentation and provided feedback to students. This experience
included a pre-test, post-test and a brief intervention based on problembased learning (PBL). Results show that students improved in essay aspects such as the introduction, presenting and supporting a thesis, including evidence with proper references and the creation of a
conclusion. Standardized national test results also support the benefits
of this approach.
The project is now in the second phase, which consists in training for professors, class lectures and tutorials for students. Preliminary results presented in this report show that students are fully aware of the importance and need to develop better oral and written transferable skills in not only the Capstone Design class, but also all along their career.
their decisions. This research presents the findings of an intervention that
was designed and implemented at two universities in Colombia, South
America, to help students enhance their written argumentative skills
through essays on ethical dilemmas. Engineering professors included
explanations based on modelled examples that showed adequate
argumentation and provided feedback to students. This experience
included a pre-test, post-test and a brief intervention based on problembased learning (PBL). Results show that students improved in essay aspects such as the introduction, presenting and supporting a thesis, including evidence with proper references and the creation of a
conclusion. Standardized national test results also support the benefits
of this approach.
The project is now in the second phase, which consists in training for professors, class lectures and tutorials for students. Preliminary results presented in this report show that students are fully aware of the importance and need to develop better oral and written transferable skills in not only the Capstone Design class, but also all along their career.