Abstract:

This article contains a critical evaluation of how formative assessment and collaborative learning environments are used to enhance cross-disciplinary cooperation among pre-engineering students at the Preparatory Couse for Engineering Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The article aims to evaluate how assessment of reflection, rather than assessment of correctness, may strengthen the connections between humanities studies and science and technology studies, and enhance the students’ critical thinking. Further, an insight into the use of peer assessment and cooperative learning techniques at the Preparatory Course is provided as a means to highlight some further methods used to aid cross-disciplinarity.

Our desire to implement more forms of formative assessment and peer learning stems from the perception that university assessment tends towards the summative. Thus, each of the subjects involved with the Preparatory Course, Technology and Society (TS), English, Norwegian, Physics, and Mathematics, have decided on various forms of formative assessment and collaborative methods. Physics and Mathematics have shifted their focus from the traditional evaluation of correctness to assessing the students’ ability to reflect on their own solutions and learning processes. The remaining subjects regularly use peer assessment of assignments, again valuing reflection rather than some notion of a correct answer.

Feedback from the students indicates that the implemented methods for many have resulted in an increased feeling of motivation and less test-related anxiety.

Keywords:

Cross-disciplinary learning, collaborative learning, engineering studies, assessment.