Education Commons^™

Search And Review Of The Literature On Engineering Design Challenges In Secondary School Settings, Matthew Lammi, Cameron Denson, Paul Asunda

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Engineering design activities offer the promise of enhanced learning and teaching in pre-college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) settings. The wide variation and lack of coherence in research and practice concerning pre-college engineering design challenges necessitates an investigation of the literature. The overarching research question guiding this search and review of literature was, ‘‘How are engineering design challenges conceptualized in pre-college environments?’’ A search and review coupled with iterative thematic analysis was employed to understand and conceptualize the current body of literature on pre-college engineering design challenges. It is anticipated that this review will provide a general picture of …

Zooming Into A Tinkering Project: The Progression Of Learning Through Transitional Objects, Priyanka Parekh, Elisabeth R. Gee

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

The Maker Movement has been received by the field of K–12 education with great enthusiasm as a way of teaching STEM content to children. We call attention to and identify learning opportunities in children’s projects created in a playful, informal environment with easily available materials. In keeping with research in the field of maker education and learning sciences, we describe tinkering as a constructionist learning activity in which meaning making is captured through transitional objects (Bamberger, 1995). First, we examine one specific tinkering project and identify transitional objects within the project. Next, we discuss the process of meaning making as …

Differ In Socio-Cognitive Processes? Some Comparisons Between Paper And Video Triggered Pbl, Jingyan Lu, Lap Ki Chan

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

This paper investigates whether paper and video triggers stimulate different social and cognitive processes during PBL. The study focused on how medical students identified and described problems, and how they built shared cognitions that lead them to diagnose and solve problems. The results showed that students who used video triggers put more effort into communicating their understanding of the problem and relevant knowledge than students who used paper triggers. The findings contribute to discussions on how to evaluate the effectiveness of different PBL triggers in order to better integrate them into the curriculum.

Learning, Problem Solving, And Mindtools: Essays In Honor Of David H. Jonassen, Donna Russell Ph.D.

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

No abstract provided.

How Engineering Innovators Characterize Engineering Innovativeness: A Qualitative Study, Daniel Michael Ferguson

Open Access Dissertations

The use of science and engineering skills to address the problems of modern society is regarded as an economic strategy in developed countries across the world. However, business and political leaders in the United States feel that we, as a society, do not understand that new global competition can match and even outpace us on innovation. Many of the studies on innovators are not specific to engineers. This study filled a gap in the understanding of what characteristics constitute innovative behavior in engineers.

The purpose of this study was to explore engineers' views of innovation and innovators who create and …

A Cognitive Support System To Scaffold Students’ Problem-Based Learning In A Web-Based Learning Environment, Xun Ge, Lourdes G. Planas, Nelson Er

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of question prompts and peer review on scaffolding students’ problem-based learning in a web-based cognitive support system. Ninety-six pharmacy students were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition. The students in both conditions were asked to generate solutions to a real-world problem on clinical communication in a web-based learning environment. The results indicated that students who received question prompts significantly outperformed those who did not in each of the five problem-solving steps in both initial and revised reports. The results also showed that students in both conditions significantly improved their …

All Problems Are Not Equal: Implications For Problem-Based Learning, David H. Jonassen, Woei Hung

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional model that assumes the centrality of problems to learning. Research on PBL has focused on student learning, student roles, tutor roles, problem design, and technology use (Hung, Jonassen, & Liu, 2008), but little attention in the PBL literature has been paid to the nature of the problems that provide the focus for PBL. In this paper, we articulate a model for evaluating problem difficulty. Problem difficulty is define in terms of complexity, including breadth of knowledge, attainment level, intricacy of procedures, relational complexity, and problem structuredness including intransparency, heterogeneity of interpretations, interdisciplinarity, dynamicity, or …