Exploring metacognitive skills among engineering students through global project-based learning

Abstract

Current students have to prepare themselves with necessary skills for employment in engineering industry. In addition, students should prepare themselves to work globally. Along the needs, Shibaura Institute of Technology introduces a program named global Project-Based Learning (gPBL). Malaysian students from different educational background joined this program to experience new skills. At present engineering education is focusing on a course, which can foster students' creativity and critical thinking. Therefore, a study was conducted to explore the utilization of metacognitive skills among Malaysian students throughout the program. Reflective journals of Malaysian students were used to investigate the metacognitive skills applied. The reflective journals were analyzed using thematic analysis. The themes were generated deductively from the metacognitive skills whilst twelve sub-themes identified from the reflective journals. The findings indicated that metacognitive skills are applied during the completion of the project-based learning. It can be concluded that project-based learning is important in fostering critical thinking among engineering students.