The Power of Pairs: Enhancing Engineering Design Reasoning Through Collaborative Evaluation

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Abstract

This study examines students' reasoning using paired Learning by Evaluating (LbE) sessions. Students assess and critique peers’ engineering design reasoning as artifacts from initial LbE sessions. By implementing LbE on LbE, we aim to understand how students detect peer reasoning quality and identify evaluation patterns. We explore how high school students in a diverse Southern U.S. county discern and articulate peer reasoning using LbE.

Nineteen reasoning artifacts, labeled high- or low-quality, were compared. Students evaluated two reasoning artifacts side by side, selected the better one, and explained their choices. Comparing solo and paired evaluations, we found paired students provided more detailed critiques, showing enhanced critical thinking and collaboration. Solo evaluators maintained focus but sometimes struggled to substantiate judgments.

Authors

• Wonki Lee, University of California - Los Angeles

• Amiah Clevenger, Purdue University

• Nathan Mentzer, Purdue University

• Scott R. Bartholomew, Brigham Young University

• Andrew Jackson, University of Georgia