VISUALIZATION, EXPERIMENTATION AND DISCUSSION: A TEACHING STRATEGY FOR TEACHING-LEARNING OF MECHANICS OF MATERIALS

An inductive-deductive-inductive pedagogical approach was taken in a mechanics of materials course. The first inductive phase consisted of visualization and experimentation with a simple physical model. The second inductive phase consisted of problem solving and physical model development. The two inductive phases were bridged with a more deductive development of the constitutive equations. The implementation of this approach in a course that previously only used lecture resulted in a significant increase in the student passing rate and decrease in the number of withdrawals. The importance of the three phases is discussed.