Meta-Analysis of Student-Researchers' Learning Journeys Through a Reflective Practice

This Full Innovative Practice Paper explores an intervention in which undergraduate engineering students participating in engineering education research (EER) conduct a meta-analysis of their own learning journeys through a unique reflection process that engages qualitative education research methods and engineering design principles. This work expands on our previous research on factors that impact engineering students' learning journeys, including but not limited to gendered learning experiences, the influence of external and internal narratives on engineering students' identities, and conforming and non-confirming motivations and behaviors that affect engineering students' learning journeys. While our previous work allowed engineering undergraduate scholars to cultivate a deep understanding of the qualitative research paradigm's intricacies and reflect on other engineering students' learning paths, this innovative practice invites them into a space of continuous - albeit informal - reflection on their own learning trajectories. Specifically, we have designed and implemented an innovative practice that allows for EER students' metacognitive development as they learn about themselves through reflection on the learning of others in their education research and by integrating this process with engineering design practices - a more habitual paradigm for engineering undergraduates. The following prompts guide the EER students' engagement with this intervention: What are the EER students' motivations to engage in this innovative practice's reflective activities? How has the engagement in this innovative practice influenced their perspectives on their learning journeys? What are the EER students' emergent sense-making narratives about themselves resulting from participation in this reflective contemplation? This paper describes the process and artifacts resulting from this design-based qualitative meta-analytic practice that range from art-based representations to storytelling to mind maps. As is evident in the artifacts produced and further explored in this paper, the EER students' engagement in this innovation had and continues to have a profound, lasting positive impact on their learning journeys as engineers and undergraduate education researchers.