Course material delivery in engineering using brain-based learning techniques

Although student engagement issues inside engineering classrooms have several components, we focus our attention in this paper mainly on two issues: the dis-engagement arising due to the lack of understanding of pre-requisites and insufficient mathematical skills of students reaching junior and senior engineering classes. As a first step, a pilot study was conducted at two engineering schools, including an Historically Black College/University (HBCU). The primary aim was to identify the issues that lead to attention problems and underperformance of students. The preliminary results indicate that at both institutions, many students reaching junior classes need repeated review of the pre-requisite concepts before introducing a higher-level concept within the course. We also notice that several students still need assistance in reviewing the basic and essential mathematical skills to be fully engaged in junior and senior classes. This paper summarizes the efforts currently undertaken to develop a course delivery framework that is developed based on brain-based learning theories to address some of these issues. We introduce brain-based learning tools as mandatory teaching protocols in the proposed framework. With the implementation of this framework, we envision an engaged classroom, with effective learning in junior and senior engineering classes thus leading to persistence to engineering.