STUDIO TEACHING MODEL FOR AN INTRODUCTORY ENGINEERING PHYSICS COURSE ON CLASSICAL MECHANICS

Nada BELKEBIR¹*, Hassane DARHMAOUI^2
1Ms. School of Sciences and Engineering, Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Ifrane / Ecole Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco, nada.belkebir@gmail.com
²Dr. School of Sciences and Engineering, Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Ifrane, Morocco
*Corresponding author

Abstract

Studio teaching approach is increasingly adopted as an alternative to the standard teaching methodology.  It allows a better active learning setting for students to increase their participation inside the classroom while lecturing time by teachers is substantially reduced. This new methodology has been tested in many universities around the world and has proved its effectiveness. In this paper we present our design, experimentation and evaluation of using studio teaching for the introductory engineering physics course on classical mechanics over two consecutive academic years. Our studio teaching model led to an overall relative improvement in class performances and a substantial decrease in students' absenteeism rate. Students' satisfaction surveys show an overall acceptance of the new methodology despite few complaints about the duration length of the studio sessions and the workload in class.

Keywords: Studio teaching; Active learning; Physics teaching; introductory engineering physics course; General Physics I.