Evaluation of engineering education from the perspective of ITU students

Considering both the technological and industrial advancements and also progressess occuring in engineering education all around the world, engineering programs should develop and implement new approaches within the frame of continuous improvement. In order to make the engineering education much more motivational, interesting and contributing to students, with taking into consideration the students' learning experiences, education requires to be reshaped from the aspect of both course contents and also curriculum. It should be aimed that engineering education in our country needs to be reconsidered from different pespectives. Design and problem solving approaches ought to come into prominence with the changes in teaching techniques and this phenomenon should be placed and spreaded into whole educational process. In this thesis study, the factors affecting the learning styles of engineering students' (in 2014-2015 Academic Year), ways to improve the educational methods via design and problem-solving approaches are firstly evaluated with paying attention to the changes occuring in the behaviours of students & faculty towards new developing conditions. Within the scope of the thesis study, the methodological approach that is followed is listed below: - Determining the learning styles of students from different departments and also with different GPA, - Due to the feedback received from students, evaluating the perspectives of faculty members who are teaching at different engineering disciplines, - Determining the problem-solving and design-based teaching and learning approach and measuring its success. The questionnaire within this thesis is performed to 3 groups of students (from different engineering disciplines) who were selected according to grade point averages as 4,0 ≤ GPA <3,0; 3,0 ≤ GPA <2,0, GNO ≤ 2,0 and totally answered by 1209 students. Statistical analysis of the survey findings was carried out with statistical program namely SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 23.0. Survey questions were examined in groups under the main headings that were effective in the preparation process of questionnare. During the the statistical evaluation of the data, descriptive statistical methods (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) and also independent samples t test, One Way ANOVA test, and Tukey test were used in the comparing quantitative data. For certain questions, cross tabs were created and interpreted with the help of chi-square test to assess whether the variables are related to each other. When comparing two quantitative data, Pearson Correlation Analysis was used in normal distribution cases. Cronbach's Alpha coefficient is calculated for reliability analysis. The findings were evaluated at 95% confidence interval and 0.05 significance level. Survey questions and its sub-options are designed on a construct that enables the establishment of cross-correlations in the social, cultural and psychological context. Concordantly, with the aim of expressing and interpretating analytical and statistical data much more clearly, all of the comments are made by taking into account the opinions of the both lecturers and students. They are listed below: - Female participants responded all of the questions more carefully in connection with their detailed and rigorous approach; this situation overlaps with the fact that the perception of evaluation is higher than that of men (Question # 51). - The percentage of students in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade who completed the questionnaire is almost the same and totally 79.8 % of the participants (Question # 53). - The main distinction point of the questionnaire is that survey groups are determined according to their grade point averages (3.0 - 4.0, 3.0 - 2.0, Surveillance List). In general, the assessment of the questions of the Surveillance List has obvious differences with the other two groups from the aspect of assesment of the questions. In contrast to the surveillance list in the context of some questions, the group with a mean of 3.0 to 4.0 showed different perceptions of evaluation. - The majority of the survey participants are Anatolian High School graduates (58,9 %). This is followed by Private / State Science High School graduates (15,6 %) (Question # 58). - When making a distinction according to their high school education or in other words from the city and region where they came to Istanbul Technical University, most of the students who answered the questionnaire come mainly from İstanbul, Marmara Region and Aegean Region and the rest are mostly from Mediterranean, Central Anatolia and Black Sea Regions (Question # 56). - The majority of the students' place of residence is in Istanbul and this results in a high percentage of those who prefer to stay with the family (Question # 56 & Question # 59). - When assessed in terms of parental education level, students' fathers have a higher educational level than mothers'. The vast majority of fathers are university graduates, while their mothers are high school graduates. On the contrary, the percentage of mothers with respect to their level of untrained or only literate is considerably higher than their fathers (Question # 60). - Classifying according to family average monthly income, our university's general profile consists of students who have economic income level. In connection with this situation, students receive financial and economic support for both educational and social activities from their families or additionally from credit and scholarship. Also, the proportion of those who provide education support by their self-employment is also very high (Question # 62 & Question # 63). - When students are asked about foreign languages, as expected, the vast majority speak English, followed by German and French. As a foreign language learning place, secondary & high school education schools and ITU Prep Classes have the highest percentages by sharing the same rates (Question # 34-38, Question # 67, Question # 68, Question # 69). - Factors influencing students' selection of engineering professions include (with the highest scores): analytical thinking skills that they possess and that they think they will make it possible for them to do better, improve themselves and good training opportunities, their interest in the engineering profession, chosing the university instead of what they want to study professionally (Question # 4 - 7). - It was concluded that the most effective and critical factor in the postgraduate employment process of participant students was the "free working environment". The other influential factors are as follows; salary, job security, promotion opportunities, firm image and institutionality, privileges / advantages (Question # 7). - Majority of the participating students do not have concerns about finding a job after their graduation (Question # 6). - The vast majority of students have indicated that they could encourage relatives about studying engineering, they are satisfied with their studies in the engineering department, they have chosen the departments intentionally and if they have the chance to choose again, they will choose the same department (Question # 1, Question # 2, Question # 9). - According to the questionnaire results, it can be deduced that the grade average point in the engineering employment procedure is not a selection criterion and students' awareness in this issue is also seen. Also, students thought the 4-year undergraduate education does not provide proficiency in the profession. In parallel with this situation, students are no longer satisfied with only the bachelor's degree and majority of them continue their studies at graduate programs (Question # 9). - The vast majority of our graduated students want to work at large-scale, international and private sector companies. In addition, a considerable amount of students wants to establish their own company. Those who are interested in pursuing an academic career and those who want to work in the production part where the theoretical knowledge is shown directly in the flow of practice are also among the other career options (Question # 8, Question # 17, Question # 18). - Questionnaire participants have given the lowest scores to the questions that are related to "Academic Counseling". Some conclusions can be drawn as: most of the students were not able to meet with the academic advisor frequently, even some of them never seen / met, the interviews were not planned, the questions about the professional progress and future plans were not helped (Question # 14-16). - Practical applications, laboratory practices, internships, seminars and project applications are included in the teaching techniques preferred by the students (Question # 17, Question # 18). As a result of the survey results, "ITU Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department" was selected as the focus group and 3 rubrics (Team-work, Laboratory Course and Design Graduation Project) are specially formed for this department in order to develop the proposal. With the use of rubrics, it was aimed to make improvements by measuring the performances of students in the mentioned subjects and to ensure that our students are better equipped in their future professional life by developing a measurement and evaluation method within the framework of continuous development, which is one of today's indispensable criteria.