Engineering Education Commons^™

Congruence And Friction Between Teachers’ Intentions And Students’ Perceptions Of Cbl Courses, Kerstin Helker, Selina Michel, Michael Bots, Patrik Mottl, Aet Michelson

Research Papers

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) has become specifically popular in higher engineering education as it embraces authentic, active, and interdisciplinary learning that requires students’ self-direction and collaborative decision-making. The CBL compass (van den Beemt et al. 2023) has been widely applied to capture the variety of educational innovations under the CBL label regarding their vision, teaching and learning, and support. As the tool only captures the teachers' intentions and goals, the question remains whether discrepancies occur with student perceptions of the CBL learning environment that may cause friction.

Nurturing Community: Using Community-Based Service Learning In Biopharmaceutical Engineering Education., Miriam I Jiménez-Pérez, Yocanxóchitl Perfecto-Avalos., Mariana C Orellana- Haro

Research Papers

This project evaluates the use of CBSL as a strategy for teaching clinical investigation in the development of biopharmaceutical products based on the nutritional needs of children of a low-income community. To achieve this purpose, our students formulated various functional foods that provided the necessary nutrients for the children in the target community. Afterwards, they drafted the corresponding clinical protocols for each formulation, considering possible ethical implications. The academic evaluation was based on the comparison of courses with and without CBSL. The study found that students showed a slight improvement in academic performance with CBSL. This suggests that CBSL can …

What Do Engineers Do With What They Know: Observing Specialized Technical Knowledge In Practice, Zach Simpson, Corrinne Shaw, Nicky Wolmarans

Research Papers

The gap between engineering education and practice has been subject to considerable research attention. We look at studies of engineering practice with a view to informing education. Our interest is in identifying technical knowledge and how it is used in practice, as well as what kind of technical knowledge is used but not taught. This paper seeks to systematically review the existing literature on engineering practice, drawing from and adding to a prior data set developed by Andrea Mazzurco and colleagues, who found that there was a gap in studies of specialised technical knowledge in practice. Investigating their dataset we …

From Curriculum To Career: Analysing The Contribution Of Delft University’S Robotics Msc Programme To The Career Path Of Its Alumni, Gillian Saunders-Smits, Linette Bossen, Joost De Winter

Research Papers

The increasing global demand for robotics expertise led the Delft University of Technology to launch a two-year Master of Science programme in Robotics in 2020. The programme was designed to educate versatile robotics engineers capable of overseeing the entire process from conception of robotics systems to implementation. The curriculum integrates disciplines such as machine perception, artificial intelligence, robot planning and control, human-robot interaction, and ethics, and emphasises personal development through a course called Portfolio, which was later rebranded as Vision and Reflection. The effectiveness of the programme was evaluated by conducting a survey among the first cohort of students. The …

Engineering Students’ Dynamic And Fluid Group Practices In A Collaborative Design Project, Jonte Bernhard, Jacob Gorm Davidsen, Thomas Ryberg

Research Papers

There is a growing interest in engineering education that the curriculum should include collaborative design projects. Collaboration and collaborative learning imply a shared activity, a shared purpose, a joint problem-solving space, and mutual interdependence to achieve intended learning outcomes. The focus, in this study, is 1 Corresponding Author J Bernhard [email protected] on engineering students’ collaborative group practices. The context is a design project in the fifth semester of the problem-based Architecture and Design programme at Aalborg University. Students’ collaborative work in the preparation for an upcoming status seminar was video recorded in situ. In our earlier studies video ethnography, conversation …

Engineering Skills And Competences For A More Sustainable World, Dunja Olbina, Bogdan Buzatu, Ljilana Kheirawi, Maria Domaltova

Research Papers

In 2015, the member states of the United Nations agreed that the ideal vision of the world should be achieved by 2030. Halfway through the efforts to reach that vision, and considering the environmental issues we are surrounded by, the need for Higher Education to further incorporate sustainability topics into the curriculum is noticeable.

This paper presents the outcomes of the research through which we aim to make an impact on Higher Education institutions and the ways they are educating and raising awareness on sustainability-related topics. It presents an analysis of the data collected through a survey and focus groups, …

The Need For Interdisciplinarity: A Case On Employees’ Perspectives, Dennis Friedrichsen, Maiken Winther, Anette Kolmos

Research Papers

The issue of interdisciplinarity contains disparate nodes of knowledge and practices, including a wealth of information concerning the potential and value of interdisciplinary work. In the context of companies that handle large-scale and complex tasks, interdisciplinarity takes on a real-life role since its presence and importance is readily observable and, as this paper shows, a conscious, deliberate, and highly valued aspect of innovation in companies. Academic literature on the issue of interdisciplinarity asserts that engineers in the future need a wealth of competences, including ability to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams. Aalborg University in Denmark has experimented with interdisciplinarity in various …

Addressing Challenges Of The Sdgs: Stakeholder Perspectives On Skills Required By Engineering Students On The Island Of Ireland, Rosalind M Henry, Margaret Morgan, Una Beagon, Brian Bowe, Ruchita Jani, Janet Mckennedy

Research Papers

Living sustainably on a shared island poses both challenges and opportunities for engineers of the future. Whilst at a European level, the professional skills that engineers will need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been identified, less has been written on how these skills should be contextualised for a national, regional and/or local level. This research paper considers the specific professional skills required for engineers on the island of Ireland. It examines differing perspectives of stakeholders, comparing and contrasting views according to local context (Northern Ireland (NI), Ireland). A professional skills survey was designed, drawing on previous research which …

Problematising And Framing Spatial Research In Engineering Education, Meryn Mcnea, Reena Cole, David Tanner, Diarmaid Lane

Research Papers

Spatial research has experienced a surge in popularity across the global community in recent years, with an undeniable rise in the favourability of spatial thinking approaches in academic and higher education settings. An engineer’s spatial ability is dependent on their capacity to engage a set of cognitive skills to visualise, reason and communicate spatial relations between objects and space. With the recent growth in popularity around spatial research, new spatial terms are frequently introduced resulting in a definitional overlap between terms and ideas. This may sometimes result in a lack of clarity regarding spatial terms and definitions, with the definitions …

Draw Education: Graduate Student Perceptions Of Education Using An Arts-Informed Approach, Lisa Schibelius, Homero Murzi

Research Papers

Education has been shifting to foster better learning environments for students with instructors as co-constructors of knowledge in the classroom. Part of this educational transformation has been accomplished through graduate student education in preparing the next generation of educators to adopt student-centered teaching approaches. Change, however, can be slow, and implementation in the classroom looks different across disciplines. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of graduate students’ perceptions of education when enrolled in a course on contemporary pedagogy. We seek to answer RQ: How do perceptions of education compare between graduate students in engineering and …

A Critical Realist Investigation Into The Development Of Engineering Ethics Education, Diana Adela Martin, Eddie Conlon, Brian Bowe

Research Papers

The paper reflects on the use of critical realism as a theoretical lens for examining the provision of ethics in engineering programmes and putting forward recommendations for the development of engineering ethics education. It is based on a large scale 4-year mixed methods study in which 23 engineering programmes from 6 higher education institutions in Ireland participated. The methods used include documentary analysis of programme documents, course syllabus and accreditation reports, interviews with instructors and members of accreditation panels, participant observation at accreditation events and a descriptive statistical analysis of the numerical grade used by engineering programmes to self-assess their …

Can Oral Examinations Replace Written Examinations?, Zixuan Mu, Fred Marquis

Research Papers

The purpose of any assessment is to determine students’ learning. While oral examinations have been adopted in many education systems, such as the PhD thesis viva and medical assessments (Huxham, Campbell, and Westwood 2012), they are rarely used in undergraduate engineering courses (Baghdadchi et al. 2022) which traditionally rely on written papers. This is not surprising given, generally, the large cohort sizes and the need to efficiently conduct such examinations in a timely manner. It has been shown that widening the range of assessments that a student experiences can lead to a more comprehensive development of the student (Rust 2005) …

Exploring Racialized Ideologies About Latino/A/X Engineering Students In The United States Southwest Region, Joel Alejandro Mejia

Research Papers

Although efforts in the United States (U.S.) to improve the participation and representation of minoritized populations in engineering have increased, there is a stagnant representation of Latinos/as/xs in engineering spaces. Given that a historical context of engineering education for Latinos/as/xs in the U.S. is limited in the engineering education research literature, this paper provides a description of the historical educational landscape of Latinos/as/xs in the U.S. Southwest region and connects that sociohistorical context to the current realities of Latinos/as/xs in the region through their testimonios. The U.S. Southwest is home to the largest Latino population in the U.S., who also …

Emerging Trends, Approaches And Challenges In Engineering Education In The Uk, Stella Fowler, Ines Direito, Kate Bellingham, John Mitchell

Research Papers

Worldwide, engineering educators are searching for approaches, pedagogies and change strategies to develop programmes that will equip their graduates to be successful engineers, effective engineering leaders and catalysts for social 1 S. Fowler, [email protected] development. In the UK, focus largely rests on new pathway initiatives and new Higher Education (HE) institutions. There is little shared understanding of the established sector’s evolution from a maths and science heavy curricula to the innovative and world-leading models of engineering education found in the UK HE sector today.

Assessing Engineering Students Preparedness For Lifelong Learning And Self-Reflection Competency, Rani Dujardin, Lynn Van Den Broeck, Greet Langie

Research Papers

Lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important in the field of engineering. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are responsible for the transfer of field-specific knowledge, but also for preparing students for LLL. To do so, HEIs need a clear view of the extent to which engineering students are prepared for LLL. Research suggests two approaches in the assessment of LLL, namely (1) a holistic approach measuring general preparedness for LLL and (2) a specific approach measuring a subcompetency of LLL. The current study combines both approaches by using Kirby’s lifelong learning scale (LLS) and Grant’s Self-Reflection and Insight Scale (SRIS). Firstly, a …

Student’S Experience Of Feedback Practices And Recommendations For Improvement, Keith Willey, Anne Gardner

Research Papers

There have been numerous research studies and recommendations as to what feedback should look like to improve student learning and the learning experience. These recommendations include being timely, fed forward, provided using different modes and sources and to support students to know how to best use the feedback they are given.

The Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) at The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is currently focusing on improving the quality, effectiveness and delivery of feedback provided to their students on their learning and demonstrated achievement in a variety of settings.

This paper reports the first stage of this …

Students’ Views Of Taught Professional Competencies: Investigating The Impact Of Previous Work Experience, David Lowe, Keith Willey, Emanuela Tilley

Research Papers

The ability of Engineering graduates to function as successful professionals depends not only on technical disciplinary knowledge but also on a wide range of professional competencies. Students' reactions to the teaching and assessment of these competencies are often negative. An ongoing study by the authors has been exploring the nature of these reactions and in particular, the various factors that contribute to students’ views on the teaching of professional competencies. A preliminary factor analysis showed that students’ level of professional experience was a key factor in shaping variations in their views. In this paper, we explore this issue in more …

Resilience-Related Competencies In Engineering Education – Mapping Abet, Eur-Ace And Cdio Criteria, Ann-Kristin Winkens, Felix Engelhardt, Carmen Leicht-Scholten

Research Papers

In view of the increasing intensity and frequency of natural disasters due to climate change, engineers need to be able to design systems and infrastructures that are resilient to disruptions. Resilience, here, describes the ability of systems to not only be prepared for sudden crises and to recover from these, but also to learn in order to build adaptive capacity. However, research has shown that there is a lack of system resilience and related competencies in engineering education at various levels. First, there are only a few studies that address resilience on a system level in engineering education. Second, studies …

Professional Identity Of Female Engineering Graduates: An Exploration Of Identity Status Through Life History Research, Natascha Van Hattum-Janssen, Maaike D. Endedijk

Research Papers

The number of students entering engineering programmes is too low to meet the need for engineering graduates. Still, many leave for jobs outside the technical sector right after graduation. Professional identity is a concept that helps to explain why they stay in or leave the technical sector (Cech 2014). It is the result of the process of professional socialisation. This study uses life history research to understand the professional socialisation of engineering graduates from kindergarten age until a few years after graduation. An analysis of the life experiences of male and female engineering graduates shows differences in how they describe …

A Possible Solution To Avoid The Consequences Of The Covid-19 Pandemic And Reduce Dropout In Calculus Education, Brigitta Szilágyi, Csaba Szabó, Anna Koós, Bence Sipos

Research Papers

The effects of the COVID-19 are likely to stay in education for a long time to come. First year students of 2022 have completed the last two years of their high school education, which are the most important for further studies, during the worst period of the pandemic. Compared to previous years, far fewer students were able to meet the requirements of Calculus 1. Although there was a wide range of support material (interactive online interface, films, notes, elaborate calculation exercises) available to the students, they were not able to catch up and progress independently, regardless.

The calculus course consists …

How To Develop Teachers' Well-Being?, Beatrix Séllei, Emma Lógó

Research Papers

The well-being of teachers is one key to students’ and education’s success. As an innovative solution, we hold a training program for educators using design thinking based on the “Designing Your Life” program that can be familiar with engineering educators’ mindsets. We adopted it for the Hungarian circumstances and made one pilot program and one real program with the self-applying teachers at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. We surveyed teachers’ well-being with the PERMA Profiler at the beginning of the program and one month after the program in both samples and had in total of 41 answers (n=23). …

Going Beyond Intentions: A Methodology For Assessing Entrepreneurial Activity Among Engineering Education Alumni, Saul Garcia Huertes, Ramon Bragós Bardia

Research Papers

This research paper proposes a novel methodology for evaluating entrepreneurial activity among engineering education alumni using their public CVs as our main source of information. The objective is to go beyond measuring entrepreneurship intentions or mindset through surveys, and instead analyse actual career data to assess the impact of entrepreneurship education. The study utilises shared user data and employs GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) models to infer entrepreneurial activity that extends beyond job titles, delving into the specific responsibilities and achievements associated with each position.

Who Funds Engineering Education Research? Content Analysis Of Funding Sources Described In Three Top-Tier Engineering Education Research Journals, Andrew Valentine, Natalie Wint, Bill Williams

Research Papers

Engineering education research (EER) is becoming a globally connected field of inquiry but there is a lack of sustained funding opportunities available. Currently, it is not quantitatively known which entities are most prolific for providing funding for EER globally. This study attempted to map which entities were most commonly cited as providing funding for EER. Three top-tier EER journals were chosen, articles published in the journals during 2021 were identified. Metadata about each publication was downloaded from Scopus. Funding information for each publication was qualitatively analysed, then synthesised to provide a quantitative understanding of EER funding sources. There was a …

Teaching Sustainability Through A Role-Play Case Study Of E-Scooter Use On College Campuses, Shruti Mehta, Ashish Hingle, Aditya Johri

Research Papers

Sustainability has developed into a pressing concern across disciplinary domains, and the need for teaching sustainability concepts to students has grown significantly. In this paper, we present a research study that assessed undergraduate students’ understanding of sustainability after participating in a case study discussion. We designed and implemented a role-play case study of e-scooters on a college campus. The case facilitated “near transfer,” as it focused on an issue most students have personally experienced. Furthermore, the role-play component simulated a real-world context and allowed students to take different perspectives related to the topic, resulting in a discussion of social, political, …

Inclusive Engineering Classrooms: Student Teaching Assistants’ Perspectives, Joelyn De Lima, Siara Isaac, Helena Kovacs

Research Papers

Inclusive teaching is the intentional practice of recognising biases, working to mitigate their impact, and ensuring that students have equitable learning opportunities. In addition to improving students' sense of belonging and self efficacy, inclusive teaching improves retention, improves academic performance, and reduces achievement gaps. In many large enrollment introductory classrooms, student teaching assistants (TAs) contribute to the classroom climate in addition to the teachers and the students. In this qualitative study, 262 TAs were asked about their teaching strengths, areas that need improvement, obstacles, and ideas about their role in reducing incidents of discrimination or harassment. We coded their open-ended …

Addressing Long-Term Challenges In Energy For Sustainable Futures By Applying Moonshot Thinking, Andreas Sumper, Marc Jené-Vinuesa, Carlos González-De-Miguel, Maria Marin-Macaya

Research Papers

The rapid and exponential changes in our world require the education of engineers who can develop solutions to future and long-term challenges such as climate change. Exploration and innovation methodologies such as Futures Thinking and Moonshot Thinking have the potential to equip engineering students with useful tools and skills to build sustainable futures. To this end, the InnoEnergy MSc Energy for Smart Cities programme at BarcelonaTech (UPC) has developed a challenge-based learning (CBL) course that applies moonshot thinking to tackle major energy problems. This paper presents the methodology refined over three years of implementing the CBL course with second-year Masters's …

Conversations: Teaching Sustainability In Engineering, Alicia Gonzalez Buelga, Dorottya Cserzo, Irina Lazar

Research Papers

Our research focuses on embedding sustainability in the engineering curriculum in ways that are efficient, coherent and inclusive. An important strand of work within this wider remit is finding suitable approaches for promoting collaboration between institutions and academics and advance the understanding of what ‘sustainability’ means in engineering education in the first place, by producing reliable data that can inform our future practice, leading to institutional change. In this paper, we report and discuss the organisation and the findings of a series of inter-institutional conversations that took place during two in person workshops, with the central theme of embedding sustainability …

From Rookies To Synthesis: Agile Solutions For Sustainable Doctoral Studies, Maija Taka, Jaana Suviniitty, Olli Varis

Research Papers

Modern doctoral education in engineering lies at the intersection of three topical phenomena: firstly, the surge of wicked sustainability concerns and the subsequent burgeoning demand for cross-disciplinarity. Secondly, the rapidly developing new technologies and global knowledge economy provide a thriving problem-solving potential, although – thirdly – this requires proactive and innovative collaboration beyond the scope of a single discipline. Thus, doctoral education needs new practices to ensure that students are equipped with new kinds of competencies to solve unpredictable and wicked sustainability problems. In order to reach these demands, we need to favor collaboration over competition. Here we approach these …

Teachers’ Reflections On Their Experiences Teaching Interdisciplinary Project-Based Courses, Malin Kjellberg, Michael O'Connell, Becky Bergman, Christian Stöhr, Johanna Larsson

Research Papers

In project-based, interdisciplinary engineering courses, teachers face the challenge of not only imparting technical knowledge but also facilitating effective project- and teamwork. In this study we conducted a thematic qualitative analysis of 11 teachers' reflections on interdisciplinary project-based learning (PjBL). The results show that teachers appreciated PjBL as a means to motivate students and that one challenge was handling differences in terms of student disciplinary background. While most teachers did not see a need for further training, teachers who did identify such needs also seemed to already apply a wider range of PjBL teaching strategies. We discuss the implication of …

Prep - Pragmatic Research On Educational Practice, Samuel Bengmark, Laura Fainsilber, Jan-Fredrik Olsen, Olow Sande

Research Papers

We investigate a concept called PREP – Pragmatic Research on Educational Practice, with the goal of engaging engineering educators in studying, documenting and sharing their initiatives to improve teaching practices. This concept is compared to other methodologies where the researcher and educational practitioner sometimes coincide. The study is based on a pilot, with six participants following the PREP program for three months, which we study autoethnographically. We also carried out a focus group discussion (n=12) to investigate to what extent university teachers regard the ideas from the PREP program as helpful for studying educational activities and sharing what they do …