This study explores engineering design students' perceptions of their agency for sustainability in a Danish problem- and project-based learning (PBL) context. A conceptual framework is proposed with three dimensions: personal, action, and contextual. Q methodology was adopted to investigate the subjective views of 24 first-year undergraduate…

Undergraduate engineering students are commonly introduced to design in their first year and tackle a more authentic design challenge during senior year, with intervening courses focused on technical problem solving. Along this trajectory, students should acquire skills related to the development of engineering requirements, which are important to…

Although educational robotics competitions have become a popular research field in STEAM education, there is a lack of studies concerning the design process that student teams follow to build their solutions. This study aims to propose and evaluate We!Design!ForSTEAM, an approach for supporting design thinking in the context of STEAM and robotics…

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to teachers. Teachers need a creative way to continue the engaged teaching process under the constraints of physical separation, emotional anxiety, and insecurity. Technology teachers who develop students' technology literacy or skills should be aware of the importance of integrating…

Spatial thinking is ubiquitous in design. Design education across all age groups encompasses a range of spatially challenging activities, such as forming and modifying mental representations of ideas, and visualizing the scenarios of design prototypes being used. While extensive research has examined the cognitive processes of spatial thinking and…

Maker education can enhance learners' creativity. Design thinking can facilitate the innovative resolution of complex problems. The design thinking literature and most maker teaching modes are limited in their promotion of learning and ability development in various dimensions. Learners have stereotypes about some professions; interventions can…

Design teams often rely on precedents, but the impact of using the direct experience of a precedent on design behavior requires further investigation. To explore this impact, fifteen teams of master students of architecture participated in two design sessions: one without and the other with a previous experience of visiting an example. The…

One of the popular creativity methods to solve technical problems is the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, (TRIZ), however, requires a considerable investment of time. A teaching methodology for a simplified version of TRIZ (TRIZ10) has been developed for reducing learning time and improving the creative process in solving technical problems.…

Industrial design (ID) education involves students with different cognition types. This study aims to explore and compare the design activities of problem-driven and solution-driven students and examine the stability of the design process of the two classifications regarding constraints. Based on the P-S index derived from…

Technologies curriculum is synonymous with practical learning opportunities that provide students with vocational pathways, apprenticeships, and/or traineeships, in addition to tertiary education. As with any curriculum learning area, a base set of terms that reflect the key knowledge and skills are crucial for students to communicate effectively…

Increasing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) self-efficacy is necessary for closing the gap in STEM fields. There is a lot expected of students studying in STEM fields. However, studies have frequently mentioned the importance of design thinking in developing self-efficacy in STEM teaching. It has been highlighted as an…

Contemporary literature in engineering education calls for focused efforts towards revitalizing the curriculum, pedagogic practice, and assessments. Creating multidisciplinary, experiential learning opportunities through a biomimicry module offers authentic and situated experiences for designing sustainable solutions inspired by and in harmony…

Nature-inspired designs/organic designs exhibit a very close resemblance with nature especially in terms of form and structure. Form giving for organic design is a special class of design problem that involves the use of inspiration and analogies from nature for creative problem-solving. There is insufficient research in understanding this…

Engineering is a practical discipline, dedicated to the solution of problems through the sound application of principles derived from the natural sciences and mathematics. Engineering pedagogy has therefore to balance the need for learners to gain a deep understanding of the theoretical basis of the problem domain whilst grasping its practical…

Research into technological problem solving has shown it to exist in a range of forms and draw upon different processes and knowledge types. This paper adds to this understanding by identifying procedural and epistemic differences in relation to task performance for pupils solving a well-defined technological problem. The study is theoretically…