Explaining Education to Engineers: Feedback Control Theory as a Metaphor

One of the barriers for engaging engineering faculty in the scholarship of learning and teaching is thechallenge of learning a new vocabulary. Becoming fluent in engineering education requires the acquisitionof new concepts and ideas that are often expressed in unfamiliar terms. Feedback control is...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cheville, A., Lindsay, Euan
Other Authors: Larry Richards
Format: Conference Paper
Published: IEEE 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29371
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author Cheville, A.
Lindsay, Euan
author2 Larry Richards
author_facet Larry Richards
Cheville, A.
Lindsay, Euan
author_sort Cheville, A.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description One of the barriers for engaging engineering faculty in the scholarship of learning and teaching is thechallenge of learning a new vocabulary. Becoming fluent in engineering education requires the acquisitionof new concepts and ideas that are often expressed in unfamiliar terms. Feedback control is a technical fieldcommon to a range of engineering disciplines that can be used as a model to help bridge the conceptual gapbetween traditional engineering and engineering education. Many of the key elements of engineering education can be represented by the elements of a feedback control system, with their behaviour in a learning environment paralleling their behaviour in a process control context. The feedback control model can be used to explain: the importance of timely feedback to students, the significance of assessment and evaluation in the learning process, the impact of learning styles upon learning outcomes, and the need for student-centered teaching approaches. While both fields have complexities that cannot be captured by simple models, the basic ideas can be explained simply. Feedback control metaphors make the basics accessible to a wider audience of engineering faculty.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-293712017-09-13T15:56:50Z Explaining Education to Engineers: Feedback Control Theory as a Metaphor Cheville, A. Lindsay, Euan Larry Richards Formative Assessment Feedback Control Program Evaluation Summative Assessment One of the barriers for engaging engineering faculty in the scholarship of learning and teaching is thechallenge of learning a new vocabulary. Becoming fluent in engineering education requires the acquisitionof new concepts and ideas that are often expressed in unfamiliar terms. Feedback control is a technical fieldcommon to a range of engineering disciplines that can be used as a model to help bridge the conceptual gapbetween traditional engineering and engineering education. Many of the key elements of engineering education can be represented by the elements of a feedback control system, with their behaviour in a learning environment paralleling their behaviour in a process control context. The feedback control model can be used to explain: the importance of timely feedback to students, the significance of assessment and evaluation in the learning process, the impact of learning styles upon learning outcomes, and the need for student-centered teaching approaches. While both fields have complexities that cannot be captured by simple models, the basic ideas can be explained simply. Feedback control metaphors make the basics accessible to a wider audience of engineering faculty. 2010 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29371 10.1109/FIE.2010.5673336 IEEE fulltext
spellingShingle Formative Assessment
Feedback Control
Program Evaluation
Summative Assessment
Cheville, A.
Lindsay, Euan
Explaining Education to Engineers: Feedback Control Theory as a Metaphor
title Explaining Education to Engineers: Feedback Control Theory as a Metaphor
title_full Explaining Education to Engineers: Feedback Control Theory as a Metaphor
title_fullStr Explaining Education to Engineers: Feedback Control Theory as a Metaphor
title_full_unstemmed Explaining Education to Engineers: Feedback Control Theory as a Metaphor
title_short Explaining Education to Engineers: Feedback Control Theory as a Metaphor
title_sort explaining education to engineers: feedback control theory as a metaphor
topic Formative Assessment
Feedback Control
Program Evaluation
Summative Assessment
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29371