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Experiential and Hands-On Learning Expectations Versus Reality
Recognized internationally for their experiential learning and co-op program, Northeastern University guarantees all students an experience of a lifetime that they cannot encounter elsewhere. Offering 175 majors throughout eight colleges to their students [1], the faculty and staff guarantee what is taught in the classroom will be integrated in the real world. Real experience from a student, however, speaks louder than the advertised product by Northeastern which is the consistent assurance that their experiential learning program will help them be better prepared for their future. Having spent a year at Northeastern taking classes in the College of Engineering and the Khoury College of Computer Science, beginning to pursue a double major and hoping to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Science, I believe that my personal experience in classes so far somewhat defies the claims made by Northeastern University that students will receive an integrated learning opportunity that will be beneficial for their future.
Last fall, I expected to enter a program that would teach me useful information and skills to be used on a co-op, which I plan on completing in the spring of 2020. The experiences I had so far have not been necessarily negative, but they are not what was expected and in my opinion, not effective. I was told I would be prepared for a co-op and as of now, one semester away, I do not feel ready at all. The class that impacted me the most this year was Fundamentals of Computer Science I. Many aspects of the class did not appear to be beneficial to learning and the future of my career but viewing the methods of teaching through a psychological lens can help to explain why the class I took was taught the way it was.
The heart of my issues in this course revolved around the emphasis of “partner coding,” a method where students are randomly assigned to each other and must meet outside of class to complete assignments together. The issue with this technique is that schedules did not align and it was difficult Anna Beck ENGW3315 Project 1 Final Draft Cecelia Musselman 24 June 2019 IEEE Format, Word Count: 1501
to meet outside of class. Although I do not agree with the concept of “partner coding,” theorist Robert Zajonc provides a reasonable explanation as to why this method could be beneficial in all levels of computer science classes. Based on Zajonc’s theory of social facilitation, tasks are completed more efficiently when in groups of people, or in this case, with partners [2]. Social facilitation is the improvement of quality a person will demonstrate on an assignment or doing any activity when other people are present. This is due to the competitiveness that humans have to be the greatest, which can be related to Charles Darwin’s claim that the fittest will survive, meaning that people who perform the best at something will make it the furthest, and human beings have the urge to be the best [3]. The goal of the faculty when implementing this theory into our learning was to have students be more motivated and less lazy when in the presence of peers so they can reach the end goal, which is a functioning code. The faculty claims that students will perform higher on exams and homework assignments while working together because you learn more by being around other people.
On the other hand, another psychological concept completely contrasts with social facilitation, called social loafing, which will produce the opposite results and be a detriment to the students. This theory was developed by Max Ringelmann in 1913 by means of conducting an experiment focusing on a tug-of-war game. Results showed that people seemed to pull the rope with less power when they were in a large group, rather than when they were alone. Thus, the term social loafing was coined, which generalizes to the definition that people can tend to exert less effort in a group situation than they would if they were alone because they expect other people to do most of the work [4]. In my experiences in this class, social loafing occurred instead of social facilitation, which was not the intention of the faculty. In my situation, I was paired with a partner who was 32, who was a veteran who lived off campus and was unable to meet, and a girl that spoke very limited English, making it hard to communicate with her. I spoke to the faculty and TAs about the situation Anna Beck ENGW3315 Project 1 Final Draft Cecelia Musselman 24 June 2019 IEEE Format, Word Count: 1501
I was in and they told me I would have to do the work on my own (double the amount), not giving me another partner.
While narrowing down on colleges during the winter of my senior year, one of the important aspects of my decision was to be enrolled in small classes, which Northeastern persisted they had, saying that the average class size was twenty people with a student to faculty ratio of 8:1. I find this a bit crazy, as I have taken eight classes so far, with only one under twenty students. My other classes are mainly large lectures with over 75 students present (Fundamentals of Computer Science 1 was about 90 people), which is not what I was expecting. Lectures can be both positive and negative, based off the topic of the course. A reason that the department may have chosen to implement lectures instead of additional hands-on learning labs is because of the theory of objectivism, which is proved beneficial in many ways. This theory was created by theorist Ayn Rand [5].In an article about objectivism, it is written that, “In a traditional situation of teaching and learning, the teacher transmits his knowledge of the subject (or, the knowledge he considers relevant) as an expert to a less educated group of students. The teacher is the one who is primarily active, while the students acquire the knowledge offered without communicating with each other” (Hoenke) [5]. The main purpose of a lecture is to teach students more information than they would be able to learn in the textbook, otherwise there would be no point in attending. An objectivist approach limits the students from interacting with each other, discussing ideas and having the hands-on experience they signed up for. This approach favors the group, which is beneficial for a large university, which focuses more on the students as a group and less as an individual, aiming to educate as many students with as few professors as possible to maximize profits because after all, it is a business. Northeastern does make it clear that lectures are not the best option in many cases, but they need to have some, otherwise there would be too many classes going on all of the time. Lectures are very beneficial for introductory courses.
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On the contrary, using the more favorable constructivist approach, originating from psychological theorist Jean Piaget, many more reasons are present that any type of lecturing is not beneficial for the set up of this course [6]. Constructivism is the opposite of objectivism, emphasizing hands-on learning with a stronger focus on the individual and less on the group [7]. Lectures require students to divide their attention between what the professor is saying and the recording of the material in their notebook or on their laptop. Based on neurological studies, the brain is capable of encoding and retrieving information. When attention is divided between listening to a professor and recording notes simultaneously, the process of encoding information is negatively affected and will ultimately fail when retrieval of the information attempted [8]. My computer science professor expected us to write down all of our own notes and do practice problems and I did not learn a lot because he continued to teach while we were working on problems and did not provide us sufficient time for their completion. However, labs and tutoring office hours were incorporated into the course, which gave people the opportunity to work with peers and receive individual help from tutors and TAs. The only issue with this, is the labs were not so effective, as they were ungraded and people did not put much effort into them. The tutoring hours and one-on-one help time was very helpful and aligned perfectly with the constructivist approach for learning.
Northeastern incorporates the theories of many psychologists into their learning. They incorporated lectures due to the theory of objectivism, have labs and smaller recitations due to the constructivist theory, and they have students engage in group work due to the theory of social facilitation. Regardless of my experiences in this one specific class, the intentions behind all of Northeastern’s programs are to benefit the students for their future careers. I am not saying that the Khoury College of Computer Science is terrible and that no one should enroll in it, I am saying that I was a clueless freshman who had very high expectations that were not met, but I now understand why certain tactics were used for my experiences, even if they were not effective in all cases.
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Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Cecelia Musselman, Ben Fischer and Ilana Mereminsky for their contributions and advice that led me to complete this paper. Anna Beck ENGW3315 Project 1 Final Draft Cecelia Musselman 24 June 2019 IEEE Format, Word Count: 1501
References [1] Northeastern University, “At a Glance,” northeastern.edu, [Online]. Available: http://www. northe astern.edu/foundationyear/about/glance.html. [Accessed May 7, 2019]. [2] Currie, Denise and Moreau, Jen, "Social Facilitation: Drive Theory, Evaluation Apprehension, Distraction Conflict." scienceaid.net [Online]. Avaliable: https://scienceaid.net/psychology/soci al/facilitation.html. [Accessed May 8, 2019]. [3] Ukezono, Masatoshi and Takano, Yusi and Nakashima, Satoshi F, “The combination of perception of other individuals and exogenous manipulation of arousal enhances social facilitation as an aftereffect: re-examination of Zajonc’s drive theory,” ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, [ Online]. Available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4423469/. [Accessed May 8, 2019]. [4] Shrethsa, Praveen, “Social Loafing,” psychestudy.com, [Online]. Available. https://www.psychestud y.com/social/social-loafing. [Accessed May 8, 2019]. [5] Hoenke, Karen, “Objectivism in Philosophy and Teaching Methodology,” fb06.uni-mainz.de, [Online]. Available:http://www.fb06.uni-mainz.de/user/kiraly/English/gruppe1/grundlagen_o bjektivismus.html. [Accessed May 9, 2019]. [6] Educational Broadcast Corporation, “What is constructivism?” thirteen.org, [ Online]. Available: https://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html. [Accessed May 6, 2019]. [7] NDT Resource Center, “Teaching with the Constructivist Learning Theory,” nde-ed.org, [Online]. Available: https://www.nde-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Constructivi st%20 _Learning.htm. [Accessed May 7, 2019]. [8] Bjork, Robert A and deWinstanely Patricia Ann, “Successful Lecturing: Presenting Information Anna Beck ENGW3315 Project 1 Final Draft Cecelia Musselman 24 June 2019 IEEE Format, Word Count: 1501
in Ways That Engage Effective Processing,” ucf.edu, [ Online]. Available: https://undergrad.ucf.e du/whatsnext/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Successful-Lecturing.pdf. [Accessed May 7, 2019].