| 1. |
- Borrego, Maura, et al.
(author)
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The Emergence of Engineering Education Research as a Globally Connected Field of Inquiry.
- 2011
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In: Journal of Enginering Education. - : Wiley. - 2168-9830 .- 1069-4730. ; 100:1, s. 14-47
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUNDIn recent years, engineering education research (EER) has emerged as an internationally connectedfield of inquiry through the establishment of EER conferences, interest groups within engineeringeducation societies, PhD programs, and departments and centers at universities.Improving the preparation and training of engineers through EER is critical to solving majorengineering challenges in sustainability, climate change, civil infrastructure, energy, and publichealth.PURPOSEThe purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to introduce EER as a field of inquiry, and (2) to describethe U.S. and Northern and Central European approaches to EER as two examples of the diversity ofapproaches.SCOPE/METHODThe article is organized around a framework from the European didaktik tradition, which focuses onanswering the w-questions of education. The major sections describe what, why, to what end, where, who,and how EER is conducted.CONCLUSIONNorthern and Central European educational approaches focus on authentic, complex problems,while U.S. approaches emphasize empirical evidence. Additionally, disciplinary boundaries andlegitimacy are more salient issues in the U.S., while the Northern and Central European Bildungphilosophy integrates across disciplines toward development of the whole person. Understandingand valuing complementary perspectives is critical to growth and internationalization of EER.
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| 2. |
- Du, Xiangyun, et al.
(author)
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Examining engineering students' perceptions of learner agency enactment in problem- and project-based learning using Q methodology
- 2022
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In: Journal of Engineering Education. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1069-4730 .- 1524-4873 .- 2168-9830. ; 111:1, s. 111-136
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background Few studies have reported how students enact learner agency in a team setting or examined what elements of team settings students perceive as more supportive of their learning in problem- and project-based learning (PBL) processes. Purpose This study explores how engineering students perceive their enactment of learner agency, particularly which aspects of the PBL process they find most important. Method Thirty-nine students from two PBL civil engineering courses in Qatar participated in the study. Q methodology was chosen for both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. A 40-item Q set based on a theoretical model of learner agency was used. Results Eight significantly different student viewpoints emerged from the Q methodological factor analysis, indicating a range of individual perceptions of learner agency. Intrapersonal dimensions were highlighted by three of the eight viewpoints, behavioral dimensions were underlined by seven viewpoints, and environmental dimensions were valued by all viewpoints. Conclusion While the results reveal a wide range of individual experiences with learner agency across the three dimensions, students addressed self-directed learning aspects both actively and passively, suggesting that many participants still value instructors' roles of providing direct instruction and authorized knowledge in PBL. The results highlight the need for more awareness of learner agency and more opportunities for students to enact learner agency by increasing PBL knowledge, skills, and efficacy. Q methodology can contribute to engineering education research by providing new theoretical and empirical insights into learners' subjective understanding of agency in a PBL setting as a complex system.
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| 3. |
- Hagvall Svensson, Oskar, 1990, et al.
(author)
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How do students negotiate groupwork? The influence of group norm exercises and group development norms
- 2024
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In: Journal of Engineering Education. - 1069-4730 .- 2168-9830. ; In Press
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundGroup norms in engineering education groupwork are usually negotiated in an implicit and often unequal manner. Although it is regularly suggested that student groups can function better if norm negotiations are, instead, made explicit, the social dynamics of group norm exercises have remained underexplored.PurposeWe investigate how students negotiate group norms in group norm exercises, including the different understandings of groupwork that they construct and draw from to facilitate their negotiations.MethodWe recorded and analyzed a sequence of three group norm exercises focused on developing a team charter, with seven participating student groups. Drawing on framing theory, we study negotiation sequences in terms of framing practices, and understandings of groupwork in terms of activity frames.ResultsOur findings suggest that group norm exercises can help students to coordinate their expectations and transform previously established norms. However, they may also be approached in such a way that students are discouraged from questioning established group norms, instead resolving disagreement by simply rejecting alternative perspectives. We introduce the term "group development norms" to explain these dynamics, showing that the question of how to develop group norms is in itself a subject for negotiation.ConclusionsProviding a forum and process is neither enough to ensure reflective and equitable negotiations nor transparent and inclusive group norms. To avoid that group norm exercises simply reaffirm dominant norms, students should be provided with explicit negotiation strategies and, ideally, direct facilitation.
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| 4. |
- Hagvall Svensson, Oskar, 1990, et al.
(author)
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How do students negotiate groupwork? The influence of group norm exercises and group development norms
- 2024
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In: JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION. - 1069-4730 .- 2168-9830.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundGroup norms in engineering education groupwork are usually negotiated in an implicit and often unequal manner. Although it is regularly suggested that student groups can function better if norm negotiations are, instead, made explicit, the social dynamics of group norm exercises have remained underexplored.PurposeWe investigate how students negotiate group norms in group norm exercises, including the different understandings of groupwork that they construct and draw from to facilitate their negotiations.MethodWe recorded and analyzed a sequence of three group norm exercises focused on developing a team charter, with seven participating student groups. Drawing on framing theory, we study negotiation sequences in terms of framing practices, and understandings of groupwork in terms of activity frames.ResultsOur findings suggest that group norm exercises can help students to coordinate their expectations and transform previously established norms. However, they may also be approached in such a way that students are discouraged from questioning established group norms, instead resolving disagreement by simply rejecting alternative perspectives. We introduce the term "group development norms" to explain these dynamics, showing that the question of how to develop group norms is in itself a subject for negotiation.ConclusionsProviding a forum and process is neither enough to ensure reflective and equitable negotiations nor transparent and inclusive group norms. To avoid that group norm exercises simply reaffirm dominant norms, students should be provided with explicit negotiation strategies and, ideally, direct facilitation.
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| 5. |
- Lönngren, Johanna, 1985-
(author)
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Exploring the discursive construction of ethics in an introductory engineering course
- 2021
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In: Journal of Engineering Education. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1069-4730 .- 1524-4873 .- 2168-9830. ; 110, s. 44-69
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Engineering education must prepare students to assume professional and ethical responsibility for the societal impacts of technology, but most engineering students do not receive adequate ethics teaching. In fact, engineering education has been described as characterized by a “culture of disengagement” in which ethical and societal concerns are constructed as different from and less important than purely technical concerns.Purpose/Hypothesis: This study explores how a culture of disengagement is discursively constructed and perpetuated in engineering education by analyzing the discursive construction of ethics and ethical reflection in an introductory engineering course in Sweden.Design/Method: The study is based on extensive ethnographic data in the form of field notes, lecture recordings, interview data, and course documents. The data are analyzed using a discourse analytic approach rooted in discourse theory.Results: The results illustrate five processes through which ethics and ethical reflection are articulated as not the responsibility of the specific field of engineering, irrelevant for the profession, of low quality and status, and not very important for the engineering degree.Conclusions: The results contribute to understanding how a culture of disengagement may be perpetuated in engineering education. The results also point toward pedagogical tools and strategies that instructors and program managers can use to construct ethics and ethical reflection as an advanced skill that is an important and integral part of engineering and engineering education—and thus better prepare future engineers to become responsible professionals.
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| 6. |
- Doerr, Helen M., et al.
(author)
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Design and Effectiveness of Modeling-Based Mathematics in a Summer Bridge Program
- 2014
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In: Journal of Engineering Education. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1069-4730 .- 1524-4873. ; 103:1, s. 92-114
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundSince students' success in their first-semester college mathematics course is a key factor in their success in engineering, many summer bridge programs for underrepresented students focus on their preparation in mathematics. However, research on the design and efficacy of such programs is limited. We examine the design and effectiveness of a modeling-based approach to mathematics for entering freshmen engineering students.PurposeThe study addresses two questions: Does a modeling-based mathematics course in a bridge program positively affect students' performance in their first-semester college mathematics course? To what extent does a sequence of modeling tasks support the development of students' concepts of average rates of change?Design/MethodThis quasi-experimental study compared two cohorts of bridge program students over six years to examine the effectiveness of a modeling-based mathematics course on first-semester mathematics course grades. Pre- and post–tests measured changes in students' concepts of average rates of change.ResultsThe modeling-based mathematics course closed the previous letter grade gap between bridge program participants and non-participants in the first mathematics course. We also found significant course grade gains for students who took the modeling-based mathematics course compared with a previous cohort who took a traditional summer mathematics course.ConclusionsThese results suggest that the modeling-based mathematics course, with its focus on the development of engineering students' abilities to model changing phenomena, was effective in improving students' concepts of average rate of change and their first-semester mathematics course grade.
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| 7. |
- Engelbrecht, Johann, et al.
(author)
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Conceptual and Procedural Approaches to Mathematics in the Engineering Curriculum : Student Conceptions and Performance
- 2012
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In: Journal of Engineering Education. - : American Society for Engineering Education. - 1069-4730 .- 1524-4873. ; 101:1, s. 138-162
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUNDDemands by engineering faculties of mathematics departments have traditionally been for teaching computational skills while also expecting analytic and creative knowledge-based skills. We report on a project between two institutions, one in South Africa and one in Sweden, that investigated whether the emphasis in undergraduate mathematics courses for engineering students would benefit from being more conceptually oriented than the traditional more procedurally oriented way of teaching.PURPOSE (HYPOTHESIS)We focus on how second-year engineering students respond to the conceptual-procedural distinction, comparing performance and confidence between Swedish and South African groups of students in answering conceptual and procedural mathematics problems. We also compare these students’ conceptions on the role of conceptual and procedural mathematics problems within and outside their mathematics studies.DESIGN/METHODAn instrument consisting of procedural and conceptual items as well as items on student opinions on the roles of the different types of knowledge in their studies was conducted with groups of second-year engineering students at two universities, one in each country.RESULTSAlthough differences between the two countries are small, Swedish students see procedural items to be more common in their mathematics studies while the South African students find both conceptual and procedural items common; the latter group see the conceptually oriented items as more common in their studies outside the mathematics courses.CONCLUSIONSStudents view mathematics as procedural. Conceptual mathematics is seen as relevant outside mathematics. The use of mathematics in other subjects within engineering education can be experienced differently by students from different institutions, indicating that the same type of education can handle the application of mathematics in different ways in different institutions.
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| 8. |
- Lönngren, Johanna, Docent, 1985-, et al.
(author)
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Emotions in engineering education : a configurative meta-synthesis systematic review
- 2024
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In: Journal of Engineering Education. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1069-4730 .- 1524-4873.
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: The study of emotions in engineering education (EEE) has increased in recent years, but this emerging, multidisciplinary body of research is dispersed and not well consolidated. This paper reports on the first systematic review of EEE research and scholarship. Purpose: The review aimed to critically assess how researchers and scholars in engineering education have conceptualized emotions and how those conceptualizations have been used to frame and conduct EEE research and scholarship.Scope/Method: The systematic review followed the procedures of a configurative meta-synthesis, mapping emotion theories and concepts, research purposes and methods, and citation patterns in the EEE literature. The review proceeded through five stages: (i) scoping and database searching; (ii) abstract screening, full text sifting, and full text review; (iii) pearling; (iv) scoping review, and (v) in-depth analysis for the meta-synthesis review. Two hundred and thirteen publications were included in the final analysis.Results: The results show that the EEE literature has not extensively engaged with the wide range of conceptualizations of emotion available in the educational, psychological, and sociological literature. Further, the focus on emotion often seems to have been unintentional and of secondary importance in studies whose primary goals were to study other phenomena.Conclusions: More research adopting intentional, theorized approaches to emotions will be crucial in further developing the field. To do justice to complex emotional phenomena in teaching and learning, future EEE research will also need to engage a broader range of conceptualizations of emotion and research methods, drawing on diverse disciplinary traditions.
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