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Enhancing independent learning by motivating student through project work
Author
Goh, Wang Ling
Supervisor
Chen, Ai Yen
Abstract
In tertiary education, students are expected to take the initiative in while the lecturers should only play a guiding and facilitating role. It is no doubt that the educators can motivate the students by improving their teaching techniques [B. E. Bacquie et. al., 19921, but students have to respond positively devising more effective strategies for learning. Students' attitude towards learning are affected by factors such as their motivation in taking a certain course of study, their preferred learning styles, and their understanding of course requirements and lecturers' expectations. Most tertiary students in Singapore however, seem to be lacking in initiative and in independent learning. This project therefore intends to look into the characteristics of independent learning, and seeks to explore how university students can be motivated towards the realization of an independent mode of learning. The possible constraints of independent learning, which leads to the adoption of a surface approach towards learning. are discussed. This can be attributed to various factors like inertia towards change, lack of time, lack of interest, lack of guidance and the obsession with examinations.
Research has shown that Project-based learning is one of the most effective ways to inculcate independent study [D. R. Woods et. al., 19971. The Final Year project done by all students during their 4"' year of study at the Nanyang Technological University could serve as a useful motivating tool whereby the interest developed could encourage the students into taking more responsibility for their own learning. The author, a lecturer, in the Division of Microelectronics in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, has been teaching both the 2nd and 4'" year courses for the past 3 years. She had taught most of the current batch of final year students (1998199) during their pre-final years and had also supervised some of them during their 3'* year industrial attachment programme. In fact she had taught all her current three groups of final year project students during their early years of study in NTU. It is through such frequent contacts that students came to know about her and subsequently choosing her Final Year projects. In fact for two years in a row; the author's project had been ranked as the most popular project among the various projects in the Division of Microelectronics. The author is currently lecturing and tutoring the final year students for a course call the VLSI Technology.
Having the opportunity of knowing the students for two continuous years, the author tried to optimize the use of various teaching tools, to establish rapport with the students during their early years of studies in NTU. By guiding them through their 2nd year tutorial classes, their industrial attachment in companies, the final year lectures and tutorials, and their final year project work, it is hoped that the students would be sufficiently motivated to becoming more independent learners. The survey conducted among her final year students after the delivery of the VLSI Technology course reflects that with encouragement, proper planning of the curriculum and its delivery, it is possible to help the students to veer from an extreme achievement motive orientation to an intrinsic motive orientation.
Research has shown that Project-based learning is one of the most effective ways to inculcate independent study [D. R. Woods et. al., 19971. The Final Year project done by all students during their 4"' year of study at the Nanyang Technological University could serve as a useful motivating tool whereby the interest developed could encourage the students into taking more responsibility for their own learning. The author, a lecturer, in the Division of Microelectronics in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, has been teaching both the 2nd and 4'" year courses for the past 3 years. She had taught most of the current batch of final year students (1998199) during their pre-final years and had also supervised some of them during their 3'* year industrial attachment programme. In fact she had taught all her current three groups of final year project students during their early years of study in NTU. It is through such frequent contacts that students came to know about her and subsequently choosing her Final Year projects. In fact for two years in a row; the author's project had been ranked as the most popular project among the various projects in the Division of Microelectronics. The author is currently lecturing and tutoring the final year students for a course call the VLSI Technology.
Having the opportunity of knowing the students for two continuous years, the author tried to optimize the use of various teaching tools, to establish rapport with the students during their early years of studies in NTU. By guiding them through their 2nd year tutorial classes, their industrial attachment in companies, the final year lectures and tutorials, and their final year project work, it is hoped that the students would be sufficiently motivated to becoming more independent learners. The survey conducted among her final year students after the delivery of the VLSI Technology course reflects that with encouragement, proper planning of the curriculum and its delivery, it is possible to help the students to veer from an extreme achievement motive orientation to an intrinsic motive orientation.
Date Issued
1999
Call Number
T65.3 Goh
Date Submitted
1999