Causes for the Asymmetric Adoption of Active Learning Methodologies in Engineering Education: A Rogers' Theory Perspective

Active learning methodologies are oducational strategies where students take a proactive role, and where they must meaningfully work and d reflect on the competencies of the academic units. More than twelve different active methodologics have been developod in recent years. Selecting one or another usually depends on the available time and physical space, the nature of the academic unit to be learned, or the number of students. But many authors also highlight the comfort level of professors as a key factor to understand the adoption of some active strategies over others. This article aims to study how this "comfort level" affects the adoption of the different active learning methodologies, in engineering education conters, and using the Rogers Diffusion of Innovation theory. A collection of survey questions was conducted among engineering professors at Universidad Polit & eacute;cnica de Madrid and Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio. Responses were based on the Likert scale and statistical methods were used to analyze the collected data. Results confirmod that the relative advantage has the highest positive impact on the adoption rate and observability. However, complexity, the nature of the social system and the type of innovation-decision have a negative impact on the adoption rate. Engineering education centers ARE suggested to increase the social recognition of active learning adoption to improve the adoption rate.