An Exploration Of Self-regulated Learning Of Engineering Students In The Context Of First-year Engineering Course

Project-based learning(PBL)has been widely adopted in engineering education because of its proved effectiveness in improving students' problem-solving ability,collaboration skills,and academic achievement.One of the teaching objectives of PBL is to improve the self-regulated learning skills of students.With an aim to explore the practical teaching effect of PBL in improving students' self-regulated learning skills,we explored the learning process of engineering students in the context of a group project setting,using the self-regulated learning framework of Zimmerman(1989)and Pintrich(2004).Based on our qualitative data,we figured out the learning process of engineering students in a group project setting.In the dimension of motivation,most engineering students thought the projects they took part in were difficult to cope with and their self-efficacy level was low.In the dimension of strategies,most students could actively learn new knowledge in cooperative ways based on the problems needed to be solved.In the dimension of context,students expressed that teachers had helped them a lot in controlling the project progress and solving difficult problems,and the attitudes of teachers could affect their project interest.Through the whole process of PBL,the self-efficacy level of students was improved a lot and they became more confident to finish the project.The task division of the project could to some degree affect the participation process of different students in PBL activities,not only their uses of learning strategies but also the overall experiences.In the context of teamwork,the atmosphere of the team and interaction among students played important roles.The guidance and help from teachers could help improve confidence of students and help them insist on finishing the project.In the whole process of PBL,these three dimensions interact with each other and jointly presented the self-regulated learning situation of engineering students.Students' subjective judgments on the difficulty and interest of the project could affect their task choices in the project.At the same time,students' choices about the task part in the project also affected students' subjective judgment on the difficulty and interest of the project.Students' subjective perception of the team atmosphere of their team could influence their interest and enthusiasm towards the project.Students' subjective perception of the context also could influence their adoptions of specific learning strategies.Other influencing factors included the limited time to complete the project,the support of objective resources,and the level of knowledge and experience of the students themselves.This research explored the self-regulated learning of engineering students in PBL activities using framework of Zimmerman and Pintrich.The research findings of this study could help to enrich self-regulated learning framework and expand the research on the actual teaching effect of PBL.Through three dimensions: motivation,strategies and context,this research demonstrated the actual teaching effect of PBL.Based on the findings of the research,some recommendations for improving the curriculum design of project-based cooperative learning were proposed to help improve students' self-learning ability.