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Promoting Reflections in Chemical Engineering Education

Kamonwan Bandisatisan 1, Guntima Sirijeerachai 2, and Terasut Sookkumnerd 2
1. Institute of Social Technology and Center for Cooperative Education and Career Development, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand
2. School of Chemical Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand

Abstract—Reflective thinking or reflection is important for the 21st century graduate attributes as reflective thinking will facilitate the students’ development on critical thinking, problem solving and life-long learning skills. It is therefore important to include this reflection practices to students in the early stage of their study. However, the reflection is not traditionally integrated in teaching and learning courses in Higher Education (HE) even though the course learning outcomes are markedly adopted in all courses since 2010. In this work, reflection activities were promoted in the 2nd year course i.e. material and energy balance in School of Chemical Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology (SUT). The aim of this study is to stimulate students’ reflection skill on their learning. Students are voluntary to participate in reflections. Short reflective writing was provided to students along the process of learning. One assignment, one review test, one quiz, one midterm exam and course learning outcomes (CLOs) and Learning Styles (LS) assessment were intentional selected and used as experiences for students to reflect on their knowledge or subject-content and skills according to CLOS and LS. Students reflected mainly on their competent on specific subject-content and skills required in CLOs. It is found that students have moderately ability to deeply think and analyze on the reflective writing related to subject-content and skills. Future direction aiming to develop students’ reflection are discussed.
 
Index Terms—chemical engineering Education, reflection, reflective thinking, critical thinking

Cite: Kamonwan Bandisatisan, Guntima Sirijeerachai, and Terasut Sookkumnerd, "Promoting Reflections in Chemical Engineering Education," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 198-205, September 2019. doi: 10.18178/ijlt.5.3.198-205