Effect Of A ‘Look-Ahead’ Problem On Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Concept Comprehension

Abstract

In an effort to motivate undergraduate engineering students to prepare for class by reviewing material before lectures, a ‘Look–Ahead’ problem was utilized. Students from two undergraduate engineering courses; Statics and Electronic Circuits, were assigned problems from course material that had not yet been covered in class. These assignments were collected and assessed. Grades from the ‘Look–Ahead’ problems, collected over a sixteen-week semester, were compared to overall exam performance. In addition, exam problem scores from specific correlating concepts/topics were compared with ‘Look–Ahead’ problem scores. Surprisingly, the data show very low correlation between student performance on ‘Look–Ahead’ problems and exams.