The design of biological systems is a multidisciplinary activity in which biomedical engineers collaborate to build novel biological systems that address society's needs. One of the most relevant skills for designing biological systems is engineering systems thinking (EST). Among the EST elements, the EST cognitive competencies are comparatively…

Interdisciplinary collaboration is widely used in research, industry, and education. Understanding the differences in cognitive processes between cross-discipline and same-discipline groups can improve instruction in collaborative learning. In this study, students volunteered to participate in cross-discipline or same-discipline collaborative…

Combining mathematical and physical understanding in reasoning is difficult, and a growing body of research shows that students experience problems with the combination of physics and mathematics in reasoning beyond the introductory level. We investigated students' reasoning about boundary conditions (BCs) for the diffusion equation by conducting…

In the rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field of quantum information science and technology, a major obstacle is the need to understand advanced mathematics to solve complex problems. Current findings in educational research suggest that incorporating visualizations into problem-solving settings can have beneficial effects on students'…

Images are central to our understanding of and learning about our world. We argue that visual training needs to be improved in the higher education system to enhance the potential of visual thinking to mediate productively our relationship with the context we inhabit. Initiatives from the social sciences and humanities since the end of the twenty…

This dissertation examines the academic status of dance as a discipline of higher education through the lens of the Western mind-body problem. Such an examination is pursued based on arguments suggesting dualism obscures the significance of the body, art, and aesthetics for educational ends. The primary interpretative lens used to explore the…

This study documented the phenomenology of critical thinking as an outcome in institutions of higher education in Indiana. Applying a collective case study design, the study interviewed educators in three institutions of higher learning and reviewed the public documentation to contextualize critical thinking as an educational outcome in each case.…

A study was conducted on the cognitive processes involved in the steps of problem-based learning and the way this pedagogical approach is applied in the health sciences. The objective was to understand more deeply the cognitive process related to student comprehension and its connection with the work done when studying a medical discipline through…

The new transdisciplinary nature of industrial product design should be appropriately addressed by post-secondary institutions and engineering schools in their curricula to ensure high quality of engineering design education and its applicability to industrial demands. To achieve this, a new transdisciplinary teaching methodology is required. This…

ABSTRACT For some time, there has been a call for cross-disciplinary teaching within the business disciplines. With the rise of data and analytics, there is an opportunity for cross-disciplinary teaching by integrating technology throughout the business curriculum. However, many business professors have little experience in cross-disciplinary…

Non-mathematics specialists' competence and confidence in mathematics in their disciplines have been highlighted as in need of improvement. We report from a collaborative, developmental research project which explores the conjecture that greater integration of mathematics and biology in biology study programs, for example through engaging students…

Texts presenting novel statistics can shift learners attitudes and conceptions about controversial science topics. However, not a lot is known about the mechanisms underlying this conceptual change. The purpose of this study was to investigate two potential mechanisms that underlie learning from novel statistics: numerical estimation skills and…

Technology is becoming more integral across professional fields and within our daily lives, especially since the onset of the pandemic. As such, opportunities to learn computational thinking are important to all students--not only the ones who will eventually study computer science or enter the information technology industry. However, large…

Theorising STEM Education in the 21st Century is a book that captures the essence of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and the intricacies of STEM education in the contemporary society. It explores STEM as an interdisciplinary field as well as the individual disciplines that make up STEM. This ensures the field of STEM as a whole is…

Chemical kinetics is a highly quantitative content area that involves the use of multiple mathematical representations to model processes and is a context that is under-investigated in the literature. This qualitative study explored undergraduate student integration of chemistry and mathematics during problem solving in the context of chemical…