From Concept to Context: A Story-Integrated Learning Cycle (SILC) for Engineering Education

Abstract

In India, engineering students, especially those studying math-heavy and computing fields, often learn about things like matrix algebra, partial differentiation, and data structures through an abstraction-first teaching method.       A formula, an example of how to use it, and different versions of the same problem are all shown here so that students can practice until they understand how to do it. A lot of students pass their tests without really knowing what the rules are or why they are helpful.

The Story-Integrated Learning Cycle (SILC) is a five-phase teaching framework that starts with a story that sets the stage for the concept before any formal explanation. It talks about three lessons: using a shopkeeper's billing problem to teach matrix multiplication, using a vegetable market's revenue as an example to teach partial differentiation, and using an indexed hook-board as an example to teach one-dimensional arrays. Informal sessions with about 45 second-year engineering students showed that they were able to stay focused, were less anxious about math, and were able to explain things to each other on their own. Similar traditional lecture sessions did not show these good changes. A discrete Markov chain project that simulated learning paths showed that the percentage of students who reached the Mastered level went from 7% to 82% over five sessions. At the same time, the percentage of students who were Not Understood dropped to zero.

Complementary Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) analysis estimates an average mastery probability of 0.78 after five sessions, with 35 of 45 students crossing the 0.85 threshold taken to indicate confident mastery. These findings suggest that narrative-contextualised instruction offers a practically realisable alternative to abstraction-first pedagogy in undergraduate engineering courses.