In the years 2005 to 2019, the number of American women receiving a degree in engineering was below 20 percent. Furthermore, even after receiving a degree in engineering, 40% of those girls do not enter the profession. While the above graduation data is essential for understanding the problem at the end of the educational journey, it doesn't point…

Critical thinking is one of the most desired skills in the workplace, as it assists an individual in solving complex problems and making informed decisions, resulting in their workplace success. Argumentation is one instructional approach that provides students an opportunity to engage in higher-order thinking and improve their communication…

One of the key challenges of Engineering Education is developing students' ability to navigate and solve problems that have multiple solution paths. In order to accomplish this, the process of solving these moderately- and ill-structured problems needs to be better understood. We used two approaches to achieve this. First, we performed problem…

Mathematics plays a crucial role in engineering education. Students who are good at math are often advised to consider engineering as a career. In this study, engineers, mathematics teachers, and engineering professors were asked about the type of mathematics representative of engineering, whether the engineering problems created by math…

The projected number of engineering professionals will increase in the next decade. Implementing instructional technology to support engineering students in creating design solutions to authentic problems may lead to a more significant number of engineering graduates. The problem is knowing the extent to which parametric 3-dimensional…

This multiple paper dissertation addressed several issues revolving around the estimation of effect sizes for computer-based scaffolding in problem-centered STEM education. STEM jobs are outpacing all other jobs and STEM workers are expected to solve complex problems. However, students often struggle with complex problem activities. Research on…

The overarching theme of this research was to explore different aspects of the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education experience across cultures and contexts in two engineering education communities, higher education and K-12. This dissertation offers new perspectives and resources to the engineering education community and…

Epistemic beliefs, epistemic cognitions, and self-regulation processes have a significant role in students' learning. Through this study, I investigated the role of mechanical engineering students' epistemic beliefs and epistemic cognitions involved in self-regulation processes while working on tasks with different difficulty levels. In this…

Methods of teaching differential equations (DE) have long focused on rote analytic solution methods that align poorly with more industry-relevant numerical and computational methods. Engineering and mathematics educators agree that there is a need to shape DE curricula to reflect the mathematical practices of the disciplines whose students take…

Organizations advance and grow by solving problems one at a time, and management graduates should possess critical thinking and problem-solving capacities to be effective business managers and creative engineers. The problem was that critical thinking and creative problem solving are operationally ill-defined in engineering and management…

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an effective instructional methodology used in higher learning. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore what undergraduate engineering students perceive as barriers to the implementation of PBL in engineering courses at higher learning institutions in the Southwest United States. This…

This research study employed quantitative and qualitative designs to explore the impact of immersive technology on the Computational Thinking (CT) capabilities of students enrolled in an engineering program at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). The quantitative study in this research employs a survey design approach to explore the…

At an unrivaled and enduring pace, computing has transformed the world, resulting in demand for a universal fourth foundation beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic: computational thinking (CT). Despite increasingly widespread acceptance of CT as a crucial competency for all, transforming education systems accordingly has proven complex. The…

This study explored how instructional guide documents and high school engineering teachers understand the concept of mindset and the instructional practice of feedback as students engage in classroom problem-solving activities. From data analysis, several important conclusions were made. High school engineering teachers create a classroom climate…

Engineering students need to prepare to address increasingly complex, contextual, and ambiguous problems in their future careers. Many students pursue engineering to improve societal problems and create innovative solutions. Yet, divergent thinking needed for creativity, and the consideration of multiple social issues and a variety of contexts, is…