Richard M. Felder

Hoechst Celanese Professor Emeritus B.Ch.E., City College of New York (1962) M.A., Chemical Engineering, Princeton (1964) Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Princeton (1966) Areas of interest: Learning and teaching styles in engineering education Active and cooperative learning methods Engineering curriculum integration Email: rmfelder@mindspring.com Homepage: http://www.ncsu.edu/effective_teaching/ Phone: 919-515-2327

Research

Publications (1997-current)

My current research activities are now entirely in the area of engineering and science education. My interests include learning styles of students, teaching styles of instructors, and consequences of mismatches between them; strategies and benefits of active and cooperative (team-based) learning; enhancing the development of higher-level thinking skills in engineering classes; the design and development of an integrated first-year engineering curriculum; and the assessment and evaluation of learning outcomes.

In one research study, I taught five chemical engineering courses in successive semesters to a cohort of students, using extensive cooperative learning in and out of class and a variety of other methods designed to address a full spectrum of student learning styles. The students in this cohort significantly outperformed a comparison group of traditionally-taught students in terms of academic performance, retention in chemical engineering, and attitudes toward their education. In another study, two cohorts of first-year engineering students went through a team-taught curriculum that integrated courses in calculus, physics, chemistry, and engineering. Scientific fundamentals were introduced in the context of real-world engineering problems. Classes minimized lecturing and emphasized hands-on experimentation. Most but not all in-class work and out-of-class problem sets and engineering projects were carried out by student teams. Relative to students in the traditional first-year curriculum, the students in the integrated curriculum earned higher grades on common examinations in the core first-year subjects, expressed greater satisfaction in the quality of their first-year experience, and were more likely to matriculate in engineering in their sophomore year. I am currently engaged in efforts to refine the methods developed in these studies and to extend them to large classes at all levels of higher education.

For a complete list of Dr. Felder's publications, reprints of many of his columns and papers, and information about his educational research and teaching workshops, link to Dr. Felder's Home Page.