This paper analyses data from the National Students Survey, determining which groups of students expressed the greatest levels of satisfaction. We find students registered on clinical degrees and those studying humanities to be the most satisfied, with those in general engineering and media studies the least. We also find contentment to be higher…

Expectations placed on educators to improve academic performance continue to increase across the United States. One reason for this rise in expectancy is the enactment of The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. Replacing the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002, the ESSA mandates that "all students are taught to high academic…

A key instructional change recommended by the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") is for teachers to be more explicit and systematic in teaching students science and engineering practices in addition to crosscutting concepts because the NGSS include a stronger focus on seamless teaching in three integrated dimensions…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explain the development of preservice agriculture teachers' PCK [Pedagogical Content Knowledge] for the concept of plant fertilizers within a content-focused methods course. The emergent central phenomenon was an overall lack of PCK development for plant fertilizers, highlighted by five main…

A pressing concern in all agricultural mechanics courses is safety. Lab activities have an inherent propensity to cause serious injury. The safety practices which are taught by teachers are largely dependent on the equipment in the laboratory and the resources available to the program. Various researchers have indicated that problems have existed…

Students often confuse the functional differences between motion "transmission" and "transformation" systems. Students find it difficult to conceptualize differences between the specific systems. In this article, the author describes a technology and engineering unit that incorporates problem-based learning (PBL) to assist…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the conceptions of integrated STEM education held by in-service science teachers through the use of Photo Elicitation Interviews (PEIs) and to examine how, if at all, those conceptions were reflected in teacher-created integrated STEM curricula that include an engineering design challenge.…

The United States is competing on a global level for jobs in the STEM fields but retention and graduation rates in the engineering disciplines are lower than desired. African American males make up 5 % of the population of American colleges and universities (Strayhorn, 2010) and many of those pursuing an engineering degree often are not…

Producing quality digital educational content is the goal of any teaching/learning system, including the teaching/learning technologies contexts. This paper introduces how the Quantitative Evaluation Framework may be used to accurately evaluate the digital content produced throughout the development process of an inclusive and integrative MOOC in…

One of the problematic features of the increasingly influential discourse of student employability in higher education is the widespread conception of "skills" as de-contextualized bits of knowledge, ability, and disposition. Instead, how particular competencies are valued, defined, and utilized in practice is deeply shaped by…

This study examined different approaches to integrating engineering practices in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum units. These various approaches were correlated with student outcomes on engineering assessment items. There are numerous reform documents in the USA and around the world that emphasize the need to…

Interactive Mathematica simulations with graphical displays of system behavior are an excellent addition to chemical engineering courses. The Manipulate command in Mathematica creates on-screen controls that allow users to change system variables and see the graphical output almost instantaneously. They can be used both in and outside class. More…

Problem scoping--determining the nature and boundaries of a problem--is an essential aspect of the engineering design process. Some studies from engineering education suggest that beginning students tend to skip problem scoping or oversimplify a problem. However, the ways these studies often characterize students' problem scoping often do not…

A perceived inability to assess creative attributes of students' work has often precluded creativity instruction in the classroom. The Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) has shown promise in a variety of domains for its potential as a valid and reliable means of creativity assessment. Relying upon an operational definition of creativity and a…

With the increasing attention to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), hands-on Curriculum Practical Training (CPT) has been expanding rapidly worldwide as a requirement of the undergraduate engineering education. In China, a typical CPT for undergraduate engineering students requires several weeks of hands-on training in the…