The design process is full of judgment, especially around successes and failures that occur through each iteration. Decisions about how to proceed when ideas do not work can be especially challenging for beginning designers. Yet, experts are able to demonstrate more natural regulation of the process. This research focused on the experiences of…

This study explored the use of heuristics in the design space by novice and expert engineers in the initial ideation of a design solution. Verbal protocol analyses were conducted with four engineering students and four professional engineers as they generated ideas to solve a design problem. Overall, both experts and novices used various types of…

Fostering experiential learning experiences that allow students to apply their design thinking skills is important for developing technological and engineering (T&E) literacy. However, K-12 schools must ensure that educators providing these experiential T&E experiences are adequately prepared and supported to maintain a safer teaching and…

Highly proficient expert engineers begin the iterative process of design by thoroughly investigating the design problem. Engineering students are often distracted by surface details, leading to a faulty conception of the problem and inappropriate solution strategies. Adequate problem-scoping is arguably the most important step in the design…

Final course grades and professionalism grades were compared to determine statistically significant differences for (1) students with 90% or higher final course grades, (2) students with 80-90% final course grades, (3) students with 70-80% final course grades, (4) students with 0-70% final course grades, and (5) all students with a final course…

Engineering design was integrated into K-12 science education in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States, 2013), but teaching design remains a challenge for educators. Design problems are ill-defined, ill-structured, and complex problem-solving tasks. Their solutions require creativity and recursive, metacognitive…

Teaching design in technology and engineering education is one of the key "Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy" (International Technology and Engineering Educators Association, 2021). Still, it can be challenging to provide a high-quality educational experience aligned with the standards required in introductory…

The article provides an overview of the quantitative analysis of teachers' metacognitive awareness. The purpose of the overview is to express the need for encompassing measures of metacognition for improving metacognitive awareness in the field of technology and engineering education. The data presented come from using the Metacognitive Awareness…

Technology and engineering education is filled with so many varied topics that it is almost impossible to break them into grade-level courses. As a result, courses are often mixed with all grade levels and all types of learners. On rare occasions, one course section pops into the schedule that is all one level. When this occurs, it may become…

The study was designed to investigate technology and engineering teachers' metacognitive awareness during specific established teacher practices. The study had a sample size of 18. There were six participants in three groups. Group 1 consisted of teachers that actively participated in Transforming Teaching through Implementing Inquiry (T2I2)…

For nearly 40 years, there has been a serious decline in the number of new technology and engineering education teachers and teacher preparation programs in the United States (Akmal, Oaks, & Barker, 2002; Daugherty & Boser, 1993; Edmunds, 1980; Greene, 2016; Moye, 2009; Volk, 1993). Currently, only 15% of the technology and engineering…

It is well documented that experiential field-based learning has positive K-12 student engagement and retention impacts, but do preservice technology and engineering educators experience similar educational benefits? Additionally, do they perceive experiential learning to be valuable in their personal study, and do they plan to extend this…

A modified Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) (Piburn & Sawada, 2000) instrument was used to separately examine eight technology and engineering (T&E) educators' teaching of science, and T&E content and practices, as called for by the "Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology"…

In the spring semester of 2010, a materials process course was selected as a means to perform a preferred learning style research study. This course was selected because it contained three groups of students: technology education, engineering technology, and industrial technology. The researchers believed that the differences in the students'…

Facilitating student growth and development in diagnosing and solving technical problems remains a challenge for technology and engineering educators. With funding from the National Science Foundation, this team of researchers developed a self-guided, computer-based instructional program to experiment with conceptual mapping as a treatment to…