Effects of Service-Based Learning on Meta-Cognitive Strategies During an Engineering Design Task, (The)

Service-Based Learning (SBL) has become an emerging pedagogical tool for engineering education. Although there is a large body of literature reporting the benefits of SBL activities, most studies have relied on self-report measures and generalized learning contributions. The authors evaluation went beyond self-perceptions by investigating what effects, if any, SBL activities had on the metacognitive processes of students during an engineering design task. Verbal protocols were collected from ten engineering students during an open-ended, model-building design task. The five SBL students and five non-SBL students also completed post-task interviews and reflection papers. The students in the sample who had participated in SBL activities voiced more metacognitive phrases, demonstrated more accurate task analysis and clearer strategic planning skills, were more skilled at discriminating useful from superfluous information, and had a better understanding of clients' needs and constraints.