Effect of pedagogy on learning by conceptual change for deformation-processing misconceptions in structure-property relationships in materials engineering classes

In materials science and engineering (MSE) a major goal of the discipline is to effectively teach learners from other disciplines about engineering a material's macroscale properties based on the understanding of its atomic scale structure. This goal is a significant intellectual challenge because learners must develop a conceptual framework to understand and solve materials-related problems in their own discipline. There are difficulties in addressing materials problems in a discipline because robust misconceptions are used to understand and correlate the concrete "macroworld" of everyday objects, properties, and phenomena to the abstract "atomic world" of atoms, molecules and microstructure, which actually control a properties. These misconceptions, which are scientifically-inaccurate interpretations about materials, cannot explain nor predict materials' phenomena or properties. In this study, a theoretical framework of conceptual change addresses the question, "What is the effect of pedagogy on student conceptual understanding of deformation and thermal processing and associated property change of metals in an introductory materials class?" Pedagogies using lectures, team-based discussions, and team-based concept sketching were compared in teaching the effect of deformation on a metal's properties by invoking the atomic-level structural features of dislocations to understand macroscopic-level property changes in strength, ductility, and fracture toughness. The effect of the pedagogy was assessed from responses to dislocation-related questions on the Materials Concept Inventory (MCI) and showed team-based concept sketching pedagogy most effectively achieved conceptual change of faulty mental models about deformation-related misconceptions. Thus, concept sketching may be an effective pedagogy both for revealing misconceptions and achieving conceptual change about other physical phenomena in materials engineering, as well as diverse physical phenomena in other engineering disciplines.