Rivera Reyes receives best paper award from IEEE Education Society

by Sarah D'Iorio

This award recognizes the best paper published each year in the IEEE Transactions on Education, as evaluated on originality, quality, advancement of the art, and effectiveness of presentation in terms of clarity of exposition and coherence.

Titled “Students’ Task Interpretation and Conceptual Understanding in Electronics Laboratory,” the 2017 paper explores how students interpret tasks as the first step in the process of self-regulated learning and how it relates to conceptual understanding in the context of laboratory activities.

According to the paper, task interpretation is a critical first step for students in their process of self-regulation and a key determinant when they establish goals and select strategies in assigned work.

Findings suggest that while students’ task interpretation changes during the task process, increasing after the completion of the laboratory activity levels of task interpretation are low. The paper also reported a significant relationship between students’ task interpretation and their conceptual understanding in laboratory work.

IEEE Transactions on Education is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the IEEE Education Society—an association dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity, and the world's largest technical professional society.

The conference was held on October 3-6, 2018, in San Jose, Calif.

Learn more about the Department of Engineering Education here.