Staff View: Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory

Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory

Continuous debates on the lack of competency in solving complex engineering problems among engineering graduates in Malaysia have generated numerous researches on inquiry-based learning within the context of engineering education. However, less work had been done to investigate how the Malaysian ele...

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Main Authors:	Samah, N. A., Jaffri, H., Nawawi, A., Mohd. Tahir, L., ShaAmeri, A. Z., Sheikh, U. U.
Format:	Article
Published:	Serials Publications 2016
Subjects:	TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/71166/ https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84958971235&partnerID=40&md5=58a811f35d29d3d2028593f1b0f1bfd7
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id	my.utm.71166
record_format	eprints
spelling	my.utm.711662017-11-15T01:35:41Z http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/71166/ Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory Samah, N. A. Jaffri, H. Nawawi, A. Mohd. Tahir, L. ShaAmeri, A. Z. Sheikh, U. U. TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering Continuous debates on the lack of competency in solving complex engineering problems among engineering graduates in Malaysia have generated numerous researches on inquiry-based learning within the context of engineering education. However, less work had been done to investigate how the Malaysian electrical engineering undergraduates higher order cognitions were facilitated while undergoing project-based or problem-based learning environment. This paper presents a study that examined the practice of scaffolding during Problem/Project Based Laboratory (PBLab) at Digital Signal Processing Laboratory (DSP Lab), Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). A single case study design was employed in which a lecturer cum facilitator and a group of final year undergraduates served as the purposive sampling. In-lab observations that specifically focused on the interactions between the facilitator and the students, as well as a group interview were conducted to generate qualitative data. Drawing on Wood et al.s (1976) functions of scaffolding, as well as Holton and Clarkes (2006) agent of scaffolding, concept-driven thematic analysis was conducted on the two sets of data. The main and constituent themes were uncovered to describe the main function of the facilitators scaffolding and the role of the facilitator in supporting undergraduates cognition while attempting to solve an electronics engineering problem. The findings suggested that the main function of scaffolding during the inlab session was meant for marking critical features, during which the facilitator accentuated the main parts of learning activity that were relevant to the given tasks. In addition, it is also revealed that the facilitator acted as the agent of expert scaffolding while interacting with the students during in-lab sessions. This study provides the insights into the importance of scaffolding as a mechanism for a facilitator who is the expert problem solver to empower the "epistemic selves" (Holton and Clarke, 2006) among the undergraduates who are the novices of complex engineering problems. Serials Publications 2016 Article PeerReviewed Samah, N. A. and Jaffri, H. and Nawawi, A. and Mohd. Tahir, L. and ShaAmeri, A. Z. and Sheikh, U. U. (2016) Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory. Man in India, 96 (1-2). pp. 311-323. ISSN 0025-1569 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84958971235&partnerID=40&md5=58a811f35d29d3d2028593f1b0f1bfd7
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
building	UTM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
content_source	UTM Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.utm.my/
topic	TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
spellingShingle	TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering Samah, N. A. Jaffri, H. Nawawi, A. Mohd. Tahir, L. ShaAmeri, A. Z. Sheikh, U. U. Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory
description	Continuous debates on the lack of competency in solving complex engineering problems among engineering graduates in Malaysia have generated numerous researches on inquiry-based learning within the context of engineering education. However, less work had been done to investigate how the Malaysian electrical engineering undergraduates higher order cognitions were facilitated while undergoing project-based or problem-based learning environment. This paper presents a study that examined the practice of scaffolding during Problem/Project Based Laboratory (PBLab) at Digital Signal Processing Laboratory (DSP Lab), Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). A single case study design was employed in which a lecturer cum facilitator and a group of final year undergraduates served as the purposive sampling. In-lab observations that specifically focused on the interactions between the facilitator and the students, as well as a group interview were conducted to generate qualitative data. Drawing on Wood et al.s (1976) functions of scaffolding, as well as Holton and Clarkes (2006) agent of scaffolding, concept-driven thematic analysis was conducted on the two sets of data. The main and constituent themes were uncovered to describe the main function of the facilitators scaffolding and the role of the facilitator in supporting undergraduates cognition while attempting to solve an electronics engineering problem. The findings suggested that the main function of scaffolding during the inlab session was meant for marking critical features, during which the facilitator accentuated the main parts of learning activity that were relevant to the given tasks. In addition, it is also revealed that the facilitator acted as the agent of expert scaffolding while interacting with the students during in-lab sessions. This study provides the insights into the importance of scaffolding as a mechanism for a facilitator who is the expert problem solver to empower the "epistemic selves" (Holton and Clarke, 2006) among the undergraduates who are the novices of complex engineering problems.
format	Article
author	Samah, N. A. Jaffri, H. Nawawi, A. Mohd. Tahir, L. ShaAmeri, A. Z. Sheikh, U. U.
author_facet	Samah, N. A. Jaffri, H. Nawawi, A. Mohd. Tahir, L. ShaAmeri, A. Z. Sheikh, U. U.
author_sort	Samah, N. A.
title	Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory
title_short	Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory
title_full	Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory
title_fullStr	Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory
title_full_unstemmed	Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory
title_sort	examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory
publisher	Serials Publications
publishDate	2016
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/71166/ https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84958971235&partnerID=40&md5=58a811f35d29d3d2028593f1b0f1bfd7
_version_	1643656123242250240
score	13.211869

Examining the practice of scaffolding during problem/project based laboratory

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