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…

Many industrial arts, technology education, and now technology and engineering education leaders have made their mark on the technology and engineering teaching profession. Their legacy is something that members of the profession enjoy and have a responsibility to continue and build upon. This is the sixteenth in a series of articles entitled…

This article proposes an alternative (or additional) place for the use of robotics within the secondary school curriculum. Robotics provides a unique opportunity to engage students in genuinely multidisciplinary learning that challenges their misperceptions about the nature of science/technology and engages them with 'big questions'. After…

We report on a study conceived with the idea that the use of logic in regard to mathematical reasoning as it actually occurs in practice is not limited to its prominent role in formal deductions and proofs. Interpretation of different mathematical situations elicits in fact the use of mostly unconscious forms of reasoning, close to those of…

The interaction between language proficiency and discipline-related background knowledge is an important feature of LSAP (Languages for Specific Academic Purposes) tests and is viewed as a necessity in these tests unlike general purpose language tests which try to diminish the potential effect of discipline-related knowledge. Therefore, variables…

In the present study, an experimental teaching material using a soundcard oscilloscope developed for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education considering the engineering viewpoint was applied to address student's misconceptions in the alternating current (AC) circuit topic in high school physics. Four experiments were…

A comprehensive experiment for third-year undergraduate students in pharmaceutical engineering is described. Students had previously completed courses in analytical chemistry, chemistry of natural products, and bioseparation engineering and had background knowledge in purification, quantitative analysis, packed column chromatography,…

Background: Recent engineering education research has found improved learning outcomes when instructors engage students actively (e.g., through practice problems) rather than passively (e.g., in lectures). As more instructors shift toward active learning, research needs to identify how different types of activities affect students' cognitive…

Feature engineering, the construction of contextual and relevant features from system log data, is a crucial component of developing robust and interpretable models in educational data mining contexts. The practice of feature engineering depends on domain experts and system developers working in tandem in order to creatively identify actions and…

Engineering students are expected to develop professional skills in addition to their technical knowledge as outcomes of accredited engineering programs. Among the most critical professional skills is the ability to work effectively in a team. Working effectively in teams has learning benefits and also provides an environment for developing other…

This thesis is an article-based (3-paper format) dissertation. In the first article, the research team adapted an input-process-outcome (IPO) model of group-level processes in the classroom, as a theoretical framework, to examine students' experiences regarding pre-college engineering curricula, classroom environments, and their experiences with…

This dissertation is composed of three interlinked studies that pilot new methods for combining corpus linguistics and semantic network analysis (SNA) to understand and teach academic language. Findings indicate that this approach leads to a deeper understanding of technical writing and offers an exciting new avenue for writing curriculum. The…

Prior literature in engineering education has focused on student-centered learning by utilizing active, constructive, and interactive instructional strategies. However, most research focused on evaluating the effectiveness of these instructional strategies by comparing them with traditional approaches, which typically placed students in passive…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) provide significant STEM degrees to African Americans. Initiatives toward increasing diversity in STEM fields have been implemented by government and industry leaders. HBCUs annually award over 20% of all African American baccalaureate chemical engineering degrees. This speaks volume to the…

The national efforts underway to include engineering in K-12 science education present a variety of new challenges, including how to prepare teachers to teach a new discipline. In this paper, we focus on elementary teachers and how they enter into "responsive teaching," in which they closely attend and meaningfully respond to students'…