Background: To prepare engineers who can address complex sociotechnical problems, a deep understanding of engineers' complex problem-solving approaches is needed. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study operationalizes comprehensive systems thinking as an analysis framework that attends to aspects of engineering work and relationships among those aspects.…

STEM technician and technologist careers can be accessible options for students; however, the historical devaluing of technical careers combined with a lack of awareness and familiarity with the specific options within this career cluster have resulted in a shortage of trained and prepared professionals. Grounded in social cognitive career theory,…

Preparing engineering undergraduate students for the workforce is a goal of engineering programs. Engineering educators arguably provide students with conceptual understanding of engineering fundamentals; however, few studies focus on how knowledge of these concepts transitions into the engineering field. Concept inventories have been used in…

The problem addressed in this study is that the performance of biomedical (BioMed) equipment technician (BMET) graduates from online programs is inferior to that of graduates from traditional vocational institutions. The purpose of this qualitative Delphi study was to build consensus among a panel of BioMed career field experts on key performance…

Professional skills have long been perceived as lacking in junior engineers. Adopting a social realist theoretical framework of knowledge in practice, a hypothesis-based survey study of early career engineers' perceptions of engineering expertise was conducted. It investigated a professional skills readiness difference between initial career…

Underrepresentation of females in the field of engineering is overwhelming and posing a serious concern to the human race, especially in the developing countries. This has grievous impacts on the socio-economic and environmental growth and development of the nation. The paper seeks to investigate: (i) female students' knowledge of the fields of…

Intellectual property includes not only copyright but also industrial property (IP), which consists of inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs and models, and designations of origin. In order to identify the importance of these competencies of non-lawyers, e.g. engineers, managers, in companies, an online survey was conducted in some…

Maker education can enhance learners' creativity. Design thinking can facilitate the innovative resolution of complex problems. The design thinking literature and most maker teaching modes are limited in their promotion of learning and ability development in various dimensions. Learners have stereotypes about some professions; interventions can…

Internationally, challenges were raised towards engineering education concerning the industry's widespread questioning of the lack of practical skills of engineering graduates. Scholars in engineering educational research have tried to better understand professional engineers' practices so as to inform engineering education. Concerning the lack of…

An extensive body of workplace learning literature documents the changing nature of professional learning, knowledge and work, but the tensions between the distinctive purposes and interests of professions and organizations have not received the same level of attention. The sociology of professions literature in contrast has paid an enormous…