This study explores talent-development trajectories of early-career chemical engineers to identify key components for success in the field using the talent development megamodel as a theoretical framework. Interviews with 12 recent PhD graduates reveal a trajectory across four developmental stages: (a) math ability and science ability, (b)…

Statistics students' conceptions of the work of statisticians and the discipline of statistics may play an important role in the topics to which they attend and their interest in pursuing further study. To learn about students' conceptions, we collected open-ended survey responses from 44 undergraduate students who had completed introductory…

Problem-solving categorization tasks have been well studied and used as an effective tool for assessment of student knowledge structure. In this study, a traditional free-response categorization test has been modified into a multiple-choice format, and the effectiveness of this new assessment is evaluated. Through randomized testing with Chinese…

The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) can serve as a summative assessment of students' conceptual knowledge at the end of introductory physics, but previous work has suggested that the knowledge measured by this instrument is not a unitary construct. In this article, we consider the idea that FCI performance may reflect a number of student attributes…

Instructional design positions in higher education require greater depth and breadth of knowledge, skill, and general competencies than the qualifications found in typical job descriptions and published industry competency sets (e.g., ibstpi). The eDesign Collaborative Research Team, a part of the University Professional Continuing Education…

Students' ability to effectively study for an exam, or to manage their time during an exam, is related to their metacognitive capacity. Prior research has demonstrated the effective use of metacognitive strategies during learning and retrieval is related to content expertise. Students also make judgments of their own learning and of problem…

Although the consensus seems to be that high-school-level introductory engineering courses should focus on design, this creates a problem for teacher training. Traditionally, math and science teachers are trained to teach and assess factual knowledge and closed-ended problem-solving techniques specific to a particular discipline, which is unsuited…

Contemporary office work is becoming increasingly challenging as many routine tasks are automated or outsourced. The remaining problem solving activities may also offer potential for lifelong learning in the workplace. In this study, we analyzed problem solving in an office work setting using an Internet-based, semi-standardized diary to collect…