The impact of cooperative learning in engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Abstract

The Cal Poly Pomona Academic Excellence Workshop Program was initiated in the fall of 1986 by the Minority Engineering Program to increase the academic performance of underrepresented minority students in Engineering and Computer Science. The program targets foundation courses in mathematics, chemistry, and physics, as well as engineering mechanics, for special supplementary sessions where 10 to 25 students regularly meet to work challenging problems in addition to class assignments. These supplemental workshops are structured opportunities for students to develop academically through cooperative learning and are modeled after the professional development program. The authors describe the educational impact on the students, the facilitators, and the faculty involved in the workshops. It is concluded that this project has resulted in stronger performance by the workshop participants in the associated course and in later courses as well, and that all people associated with the project have benefited: participants, undergraduate facilitators who are drawn closer to the academic and professional community, and the faculty who have had the opportunity to work with bright, enthusiastic students.<>