Role of Action Research in achieving better students learning in Mechanical Engineering Courses

R. J. Lalwani,
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

With the explosion of knowledge and the aim of developing a knowledge society it has become crucial to develop more effective, interesting and action oriented teaching learning process. University of Malaya as a pioneering research university in Malaysia has encouraged its dedicated faculty members to develop innovative teaching

learning methodologies to make it student centric. Under the umbrella of Action Research group this research started in 2009 and the salient features along with the methodology, process, outcome and analysis are discussed in this paper. Many engineering subjects are highly mathematical, analytical and descriptive. To keep the students attached to the basic concepts, theory, analysis, design and application, new teaching – learning systems are to be developed. One of this is Start, Stop, and Continue technique. In this all the students were divided in small groups of 4 students per group. Each group was given three coloured cards to use them during the delivery of the lecture in the class. A green card to indicate start, a red card to stop and a yellow card to continue were made available to each student of the each group. This was highly appreciated by the students specially those who were shy of asking questions in the class. The data collected in 12 weeks duration of 6 cycles of 3 different activities subdivided further in 2 sub activities made all the students very active and collaborative learners. The three main activities were:

1. Classroom activities: a. Lectures b. Multimedia c. Conversations

2. Online activities: a. moodle b. e-forum c. e-resources

3. Group initiatives: a. group discussion b. active learning c. collaborative learning

From the present study it is concluded that given an ambient environment the learning process can be made very effective and all the course objectives can be achieved. Action research has helped empowerment of the student in acquiring knowledge. With this approach the students’ performance improved from mediocre to very good. Their ability to perform as a good engineer after graduation is obvious now.