Knowing what engineering and technology teachers need to know: an analysis of pre-service teachers engineering design problems

With the rapid advances in civilization, technological breakthroughs, and a globally growing workforce, there is a strong need for engineers capable of working in the 21st century environment (Galloway, The 21st century engineer: A proposal for engineering education reform. ASCE, Washington DC 2008). To help increase the quality and quantity of students choosing to pursue engineering, leaders have called on K-12 education to look for methods of inserting pre-engineering into the K-12 curriculum. Leaders in technology education have responded to the call to develop top quality candidates for engineers by infusing engineering into the technology education curriculum. Teacher preparation programs have used various methods to provide future technology teachers with the required content knowledge in order to effectively teach engineering design within the technology curriculum. One such program uses an ABET accredited engineering curriculum for the content and additional training to strengthen engineering education pedagogy for technology teachers. Students who graduate from this program possess both an engineering degree and technology teaching license. The purpose of this investigation was to ascertain the differences between technology teachers from this program and traditionally trained technology teachers. In particular, how each group incorporates the engineering design process in classroom assignments. Design briefs were gathered from pre-service teachers who graduated from the aforementioned program and compared to design briefs of practicing technology teachers around the United States. The engineering design process was used to develop a rubric to compare the usage of engineering content between the two groups. It was found that students with 4 years of engineering training were more likely to use all steps of the engineering design process. Further examination illustrates that engineering trained technology teachers were significantly more likely to use mathematical and analytical methods to determine optimum solutions. In order for technology education teachers to effectively infuse engineering design into coursework, they need to be familiar and comfortable with the engineering sciences and the design process. With limited engineering design experience, technology teachers are not as likely to use optimization techniques involving mathematical and analytical reasoning. These concepts are critical for engineering students to be successful in college engineering programs and beyond.     

Differences and similarities between female students and male students that succeed within higher technical education: profiles emerge through the use of cluster analysis

This study focuses on female and male students who succeed in engineering programmes in Sweden, and why they have success. Data were collected through a questionnaire sent to all engineering students in Sweden registered for their seventh semester during year 2012 and about 30 % of the students in the cohort responded on several questions. The answers were then analysed and interpreted using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory and the concept of capital. The female-students as well as the male-students emerged as homogeneous groups, but SPSS-clustering shows differences and similarities between four female student-profiles and five male students-profiles. The female students who come to graduate as engineers have experiences and resources that seem to be fruitful: well-educated parents, positive attitudes to the engineer students’ traditions, and a positive view of the engineering profession. In addition, they value the traditional teaching with lectures and self-studies. They seem not to have been inspired by compulsory school teaching or teachers there. The male students have the same experiences and resources but there are differences. Among female students, a profile emerges which is absent among the male students and which emphasises the importance of doing good for society, people, and the environment in their future professional roles. Among male students, the student profiles which emerge include one with a primarily practical and technical capital despite the lack of a high degree of educational or scientific capital.     

Investigating the use of design methods by capstone design students at Clemson University

The authors describe a preliminary study to understand the attitude of engineering students regarding the use of design methods in projects to identify the factors either affecting or influencing the use of these methods by novice engineers. A senior undergraduate capstone design course at Clemson University, consisting of approximately fifty students and nine graduate design coaches, was chosen as the unit of analysis. Results from a survey of the class suggest that, though these novice engineers were convinced that design methods they were eager to learn were of use in helping them make better products, they tended not to use them. The stated reasons for not using them were the effort required to implement the methods, to understand how and when to use the methods, and the pressure to deliver results in a short duration. Recommendations from this study can be useful in designing effective design education programs and to develop more designer-friendly design methods.     

PBL教学法在工科研究生创新教育中的应用研究

为了培养学生的创新能力,将PBL（基于问题的学习）法应用于制浆造纸工程专业（含印刷技术方向）研究生的理论课教学和毕业论文阶段的指导。实践表明,实施该方法有利干推动研究生教学改革,促进教师转变教育观念,不断改进教学方法,提高业务水平;同时,有助于从根本上促进学生改变学习和研究方式,培养独立思维能力和强烈的创新意识,有利于研究生进行创造性研究,促进创新型人才脱颖而出。     

Influence of national and engineering culture on team role selection

Engineering education is an emerging field of research. Due to its applied nature, recent theoretical developments have been followed by empirical evidence and interdisciplinary research. The present study attempted to describe the team roles assumed by members of project teams composed of young engineering students. The study was conducted in Pakistan by using the Belbin Team Role Self Perception Inventory. It was found that young Pakistani engineers assumed the roles of implementer, coordinator, shaper and team worker. This study attempts to understand role choices through the framework of national cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede and engineering education culture offered by Godfrey and Parker. The study strongly recommends that engineering curriculum should incorporate activities which could foster creativity among engineers. Moreover, engineering students should be motivated to innovate through collaboration in a problem and project based environment, which is seriously lacking in engineering education of Pakistan.     

Pedagogical and technological replanning: a successful case study on integration and transversal skills for engineering freshmen

Replanning is often used to optimize results of an activity in an ever changing world. To address the challenge of preparing future engineers for success, a special course was created for all engineering freshmen of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, in Portugal. Presented as a case study, this special course underwent a careful replanning as a result of several years of experience in teaching practice alongside with a theoretical deepening in pedagogical and technological issues, under the aegis of the action-research methodology. Within the context of the case study course, the mentioned replanning was also based on a theoretical approach that clearly identifies teaching–learning-assessment methodologies that promote regulation from those that foster emancipation, using a specific instrument: a taxonomy of educational processes. The replanning was designed to globally boost results regarding the educational aims of the course such as furthering freshmen’s integration into work environment and preparing them for success by fostering transversal skills (needed for study and work). Technology is seen as a mean of education enrichment as well as a productivity tool. The introduced innovations include fun-but-educational activities, several types of assessment over time and specific technological tools which were critical for the educational impact/achievement of this course. Success is demonstrated by encouraging feedback from the stakeholders, high students’ classifications and a steady reduction in retention. It is advocated that large portions of the reasoning behind the replanning can be extrapolated to other courses.     

Using MBTI for the success assessment of engineering teams in project-based learning

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching and learning methodology that emphasizes student centered instruction by assigning projects. The students have to conduct significant projects and cope with realistic working conditions and scenarios. PBL is generally done by groups of students working together towards a common goal. Several factors play a significant role on the final success of each group. It is not only the technical aspects that have an influence on their final achievements, but also the human aspects and group dynamics. These dynamics can be studied through personality assessments, the Myers-Brigss Type Indicator (MBTI) being one of the most used and well-known methods. The MBTI is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. Although MBTI strictly speaking just only identifies a personality type of an individual, it taps into key aspects of personality and behavior in areas such as communication, problem solving, decision making, and interpersonal relations. Several studies have also related MBTI profiles with leadership styles. The MBTI also helps in understanding group dynamics, analyzing shortcomings in an individual’s style and how the style affects the group as a whole. MBTI has been widely used in Team Building, Conflict Resolutions, Communication Skills and Understanding. The purpose of this work is to study how different combinations of student profiles could explain different group dynamics and at the same time, to predict the final success in a group. Knowing more about the personality of the team members, their leadership styles and how different personalities get along or conflict with each other can be useful information for building successful PBL groups. To this purpose, the final results of eight different student groups are analyzed, studying the influence of the MBTI profiles of their members with the group success. The final results obtained in this study suggest that the leadership style associated with the profile of the student playing the role of group coordinator and the members’ profile combinations have an influence on the group’s success.     

硕士研究生创新能力培养路径与策略

创新能力是硕士研究生教育培养的重点,也是硕士研究生教学活动的基本落脚点.本文以机械电子工程硕士研究生的教育培养实践为基本,结合自身的教学体会,对硕士研究生创新能力的培养路径与实施策略进行了初步探讨,提出了硕士研究生创新能力培养的新思路.     

A unique program for integrating health,safety, environment and social aspects into undergraduate chemical engineering education

Over the last fifteen years Delft University of Technology has developed a unique educational program in its undergraduate curriculum. In this program health, safety, environmental and social aspects of chemical engineering are studied explicitly in separate courses while being integrated into the whole of educational and research activities. The program's activities include a required (“dedicated”) third year course, Chemical Risk Management, which covers environment as well as safety. There is also a required first year course, Chemistry and Society/Industrial Orientation, which studies how industries and government react to environmental and safety problems. Another required activity is the Safety Report, which fourth year and graduate students must write and have accepted in order to be allowed to carry out laboratory work. All these activities are closely related to and coordinated with one other. The program, which has been followed by more than two thousand students over the last fifteen years, requires extensive cooperation with industry.     

Safety,health, and loss prevention in the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum

Through this medium, the students have developed a better understanding of their responsibilities as engineers to protect both occupational and public health and safety.     

Conflict between engineers and marketers: the experience of German engineers

An effective interface between engineering and marketing is considered to be vital for the successful development and commercialization of new products. Studies in the US, Japan and the UK have, however, identified that conflict between engineers and marketers can act as a barrier to effective cooperation. This study aims to further our understanding in this important area by studying conflict between engineers and marketers, from the engineer's perspective, in German companies. This study has found that German engineers recognize the importance of trust, good understanding, common knowledge, integration and teamwork in building a good relationship with marketers. Although the levels of integration between the two functions and the quality of the relationship were found to be relatively low, so too was the level of perceived conflict. The main sources of conflict between German engineers and their marketing colleagues are differences in education and training and different goals and priorities. Both managers and educators of engineers and marketers need to understand how the differences in education and training influence the relationship, and to develop courses, which will help the two functions to become more sensitive to each other's needs.     

Integrating innovation skills in an introductory engineering design-build course

Modern engineering curricula have started to emphasize design, mostly in the form of design-build experiences. Apart from instilling important problem-solving skills, such pedagogical frameworks address the critical social skill aspects of engineering education due to their team-based, project-based nature. However, it is required of the twenty-first century engineer to be not only technically competent and socially and culturally aware, but also innovative and entrepreneurial. This paper discusses a reformulated first-year engineering course at the University of Pretoria, which was adopted 6 years ago to better address the required innovation skills of engineering students. This design-build-innovate course employs a unique creative problem-solving strategy in designing and building solutions to set technological problems. The students further investigate the provisional patenting of their design concepts. Mini business plans are developed and the students participate in a university- and in a national innovation competition. This introductory engineering course has been successful as measured by overwhelmingly positive student feedback, several provisional patents, and a number of small start-up companies that emanated from the students’ work.     

面向印刷工程的研究生教材建设探讨

随着我国研究生教育规模的不断扩大和水平的提高,高水平研究生教材的缺乏成为影响研究生教育教学质量的重要制约条件。通过对研究生教材现状的分析,总结了研究生教材的特点,提出了建设立体化、案例式、分层次、多媒体形式的研究生教材的基本设想,对完善研究生教育教学体系和培养研究生创新能力具有重要意义。     

The nature of student learning in engineering

This paper describes a study of the nature of knowledge structures held by six first year undergraduates in a branch of engineering. Their knowledge structures were defined using the construction of concept maps as an exploration mechanism. A third year undergraduate and a member of staff also provided concept maps from which their knowledge structures could be defined. Comparing the outcome from this study with other studies, a further dimension is apparent. The aspect of confidence was identified that relates to the affective domain. Confidence in a knowledge structure is based on a (valid) personal system of models, experiences and datum values which are found in reality. The inclusion of models, experiences and values in a knowledge structure leads to a more comprehensive understanding of how individuals handle problems. The study reported here is deeper than those which have been reported in the referenced literature.In relation to first year undergraduate engineers it appears: experience is limited; no datum values form a part of their knowledge structures as defined; models are at a simple level. Whether this is appropriate for first year undergraduates is not the issue of this paper, but certainly the difference in knowledge structures between teachers and students may give rise to problems as the two are at different levels and have different included elements.     

Sources and assessment of complexity in NPD projects

When examining the reasons why NPD projects are late, over budget, or why they suffer from performance problems, complexity is often directly linked to the results achieved. While some research has been done in the complexity area, more research is needed to assess the role that complexity plays in the successful development of new products. In this paper complexity is defined and several reasons are examined why this factor can be a significant issue in successfully managing NPD efforts. Several sources of complexity are also examined including technological; market; development; marketing; organizational; and intraorganizational complexity, i.e., one company partnering with another to develop a new product or technology. A template is then constructed to help product developers evaluate complexity in their development projects. Finally, the paper concludes with suggestions of how the complexity template can be applied by development managers and their teams.     

Identifying the gaps of fourth year degree pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in teaching engineering graphics and design

Engineering Graphics and Design is a technological subject which is offered in the Bachelor of Education degree from third to fourth year of the degree course. Fourth year pre-service teachers find EGD difficult to teach because of various reasons. Therefore the aim of the paper was to investigate fourth year pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge gaps in teaching EGD during their teaching practice. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach and eight pre-service teachers were purposefully selected to take part in the study. Findings of the paper found that pre-service teachers found teaching practice very short to do all the teaching tasks that is required of them. Some pre-service teachers did not have drawing models to make learning concrete to their learners. Assessment was done partially just to impress the university tutors and to conform to the schools’ rule and not to evaluate the learners’ understandings and their teaching.     

Reflective Action Instructional Design (RAID): A Designer's Aid

In recent years instructional design (ID) models have been a major focus of debate within the design community. The issue of creativity in ID is one area that has given rise to controversy. In this paper I present a topology of design questions and explore their potential contribution as a tool to promote reflection and designer discourse. First, I identify a topology of reflective action instructional design (RAID) questions. Next, I explore RAID within a community of design graduate students and its influences on design practices in terms of utility, originality, social contribution, and interest. Finally, I discuss ways to encourage reflection and designer discourse in design practice.     

The growth and management of R&D outsourcing: evidence from UK pharmaceuticals

Outsourcing of research and development (R&D) activities has become a major management issue for R&D and technical managers within firms. It has also been of growing concern to academics who are trying to chart the implications of the increasingly distributed nature of research and innovative activities in advanced economies. This study is based on a survey of research-based pharmaceutical companies operating in the United Kingdom conducted in 2004–2006. The aim of this paper is to outline the main reasons for pharmaceutical firms to outsource R&D and the management practices followed by such companies in relation to outsourcing. The research results provide interesting findings in relation to, for example, the reasons behind outsourcing, the decision-making processes behind such practices and barriers to outsourcing arrangements. These issues are evaluated together with the characteristics of the firms and the specific project outsourced.     

Engineering attitudes: an investigation of the effect of literature on student attitudes toward engineering

The growth of STEM career occupations is outpacing the college enrollment of STEM students in the United States. There have been many research projects investigating this issue. There has not however been a study which investigated the impact non-fiction literature has on student interest in studying STEM (specifically engineering) content. The purpose of this study was to investigate the change of student attitudes toward engineering after reading literature involving non-fiction engineering centric narratives. The study used a modified version of the PATT (Pupils Attitudes Towards Technology) called the TEAS (Technology and Engineering Attitudes Scale) to measure student attitude change. The students were high-school aged students in the United States (ages: 15–17) who were enrolled in an English Literature course. The students completed the TEAS before and after reading and studying two engineering and technology centric non-fiction books (The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind and October Sky). The data revealed that student attitude after reading and studying the two books did not statistically change.