Background: A defining characteristic of expertise is the use of intuition to navigate tasks. The construct of intuition and its importance is well-studied in other disciplines, but little is known about how it translates to engineering. Existing literature on intuition does not clearly define the construct and its relationship to problem solving,…

Contribution: This study identifies the skills required by the faculty to mentor first-year interdisciplinary design projects. The findings are compiled as a set of themes that can act as a guide for engineering educators in mentoring interdisciplinary design projects. Background: The National Academy of Engineering's (NAE) Engineer of 2020 report…

Background: To create design solutions experienced engineering designers engage in expert iterative practice. Researchers find that students struggle to learn this critical engineering design practice, particularly when tackling real-world engineering design problems. Purpose/Hypothesis: To improve our ability to teach iteration, this study…

The ability to solve authentic real-world problems in science, engineering, and medicine is an important goal in post-secondary education. Despite extensive research on problem solving and expertise, the teaching and assessing of advanced problem-solving skills in post-secondary students remains a challenge. We present a template for creating…

Background:Concepts are defined generally as fundamental principles or global understandings specific to a field of expertise. Theories of situated cognition suggest that concepts may not have uniform meaning or representation in a particular social setting. Purpose/Hypothesis: The goal of this study was to investigate the process by which…

This paper presents 'expert opinions' on what should be taught in a first-year linear algebra course at university; the aim is to gain a generic picture and general guiding principles for such a course. Drawing on a Delphi method, 14 university professors--called 'experts' in this study--addressed the following questions: What should be on a…

In this paper we present a qualitative analysis based on data collected by means of an eye-tracker tool, concerning the outcome of a mathematical analysis question administered to a group of candidates of university level or higher. One of the research aims is to highlight similarities and differences in the visual observation of the question…

The Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior (CETYS University) is a private institution established in 1961 in Baja California, Mexico under the auspices of a group of visionary entrepreneurs committed to education. CETYS Engineering recognized in the spring of 2016 that it needed a formal organization to provide third-party, external feedback for…

Despite the emerging discussions about the growing role of engineers in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a lack of agreement on which competences should be prioritised to prepare engineering students to resolve future sustainability challenges. This study examined and compared the views of key stakeholders of…

Background: Because design is recognized as a critical element of engineering thinking, it is crucial for educators to utilize the most effective methods to teach engineering problem solving. Results from this study of students' thinking process may shape future teaching methods. Purpose: This article explores the differences in design processes…

"Making" represents an increasingly popular label for describing a form of engineering design. While making is growing in popularity, there are still open questions about the strategies that students are using in these activities. Assessing and improving learning in making/ engineering design contexts require that we have a better…

The authors investigated the differences in using problem decomposition and problem recomposition between dyads of engineering experts, engineering seniors, and engineering freshmen. Participants worked in dyads to complete an engineering design challenge within 1 hour. The entire design process was video and audio recorded. After the design…

Much research in engineering and physics education has focused on improving students' problem-solving skills. This research has led to the development of step-by-step problem-solving strategies and grading rubrics to assess a student's expertise in solving problems using these strategies. These rubrics value "communication" between the…

Recently, there has been a trend towards adding a multidisciplinary or multicultural element to traditional monodisciplinary project courses in computing and engineering. In this article, we examine the implications of multidisciplinarity for students' learning experiences during a one-semester project course for real customers. We use a…

Although the consensus seems to be that high-school-level introductory engineering courses should focus on design, this creates a problem for teacher training. Traditionally, math and science teachers are trained to teach and assess factual knowledge and closed-ended problem-solving techniques specific to a particular discipline, which is unsuited…