Comparative Analysis of Traditional Instruction and POGIL: A Student-Centered Learning Approach in Civil Engineering

Abstract Students in the twenty-first century need to think creatively, collaborate creatively with others, and use innovation in their daily lives. This means that students have to equip themselves to develop creative solutions to the many problems and challenges that they may face. Still many educational institutions are following the traditional teacher - centered approach predominantly which is inappropriate to develop the twenty-first century skills among the students. The conventional method of teaching, which emphasises memorization and standardised testing through lectures, rote learning, and memorization, may impede the development of critical thinking, problem solving, and creative thinking skills that are essential in everyday life. In addition, the conventional teaching methods can be monotonous and inflexible, which can cause students to lose interest and motivation in their studies. To make students more attentive in class, students centered approach need to be implemented. Variety of instructional strategies are in practice to engage the students in learning, to enhance student learning, and also to provide opportunity for students to reflect on their learning. One such student-centered instructional strategy is Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL). This active learning strategy aims to engage students in the learning process through guided inquiry. This paper describes implementation of process-oriented guided inquiry learning in an engineering classroom in one of our civil engineering subject for cognitive lesson. The POGIL strategy divided into five phases namely Exploration, Concept Invention, Application, Reflection and Extension. In this student-centered approach, the teacher's job is to facilitate learning by encouraging students to apply what they've learned to solve more difficult problems or scenarios that are connected to the subject, which helps them to gain deeper comprehension of the material. This allows students to actively comprehend the material and gives them the chance to practise and develop critical thinking, communication, and teamwork skills. This study project involved two classes of UG students. The POGIL was introduced for only one batch which consists 48 students. The other batch is taught using the conventional approach. In this study, the learners' performance was evaluated and data was gathered from them via a questionnaire. Based on the data collected, the efficacy of the POGIL is evaluated through comparative analysis using statistical test. The comparative analysis shows that students who exposed to POGIL had significantly higher mean scores in engagement than students exposed to traditional instruction. The result indicates notable distinctions in how the two groups perceive their respective learning outcomes, as well as insights into the differences, similarities, and relationships between various groups.