In higher education, teacher empathy is a term that refers to the empathetic skills of teachers and has been researched since the 1980s. Multiple studies in fields such as medicine, nursing and psychology have shown that teacher empathy has reduced teacher burnout, improved teacher satisfaction and student performance. Within engineering…

The increasing complexity of modern power systems, coupled with the integration of diverse rapidly evolving technologies involving physical systems requiring cybersecurity, has presented significant challenges for engineers in the field and researchers in laboratory facilities. This research and dissertation presents the development of a…

Biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate students take courses that allow them to develop skills in multiple disciplinary areas (e.g., biology, medicine, chemical, mechanical, electrical engineering) and as such, have a wide array of career opportunities available to them upon graduation. While their broad curricular exposure lends itself to…

All engineering careers require some level of programming proficiency. However, beginning programming classes are challenging for many students. Difficulties have been well-documented and contribute to high drop-out rates which prevent students from pursuing engineering. While many approaches have been tried to improve the performance of students…

Technological literacy for all is the goal of technology and engineering education (T&E) instruction. While this has been the goal for several decades, technological literacy is lacking in the United States. To address this problem the current study investigates student motivation toward making and doing. By understanding student motivation…

The problem addressed in this study was high school science teachers' lack of understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and clarity for the integration of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) approaches to align standards in STEM with high school science education. The purpose of this qualitative case study was…

Estimates of "Street Youth" (SY) (those who live/work on the streets) show 150 million around the world, with approximately 50,000 in Kenya alone as of 2018. Challenges these youth face remain a significant barrier to national governments achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) targets, as formal schools limit access…

Educational reform challenges teachers to integrate science and engineering practices in teaching the contents (Next Generation Science Standards [NGSS] Lead States, 2013; National Research Council [NRC], 2012; Lotter, Carnes, Marshall, Hoppmann, Kiernan, Barth, & Smith, 2020). However, research that reports teachers' experiences in…

One goal of undergraduate engineering education is to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and decision-making strategies that are necessary for success in engineering practice. One proposed method to teach students these skills is to incorporate habits of mind into K-12 and undergraduate curricula. Habits of mind are the intelligent,…

This study examined a novel learning environment in one kindergarten classroom with 90% Spanish-speaking ELLs. The design combined the interactive whiteboard platform and a student-centered, constructionist pedagogy to structure cooperative tasks, academic language and semiotic formations through the engineering design process within a…

There is a growing call for enhancing creativity in engineering education. However, research indicates that most higher education institutions still lack the needed criteria for providing students with real-world experience that will hone their creative problem solving skills. Creating such environments requires a deeper understanding of different…

Improving collegiate women's access to and retention in engineering requires a multifaceted approach. Though a majority of existing interventions are aimed at changing women, strengthening their skills, and increasing their networks, little emphasis is directed at addressing the institutional factors that influence women's opportunities for…

Skills associated with collaborative problem solving (CPS), especially in STEM-related disciplines, are increasingly regarded as essential for success in work and life. In the last decade, simulation-based games have emerged as rich environments for the situated learning of such skills, and are instrumental in the study of CPS because they provide…

Successfully interacting with those from different cultures is essential to excel in any field, particularly when global, transnational collaborations in the workplace are increasingly common. However, many higher education students in engineering are not explicitly taught how to display the global competency skills desired by future employers. To…

This study describes the communication-specific soft skills that recent engineering graduates from Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredited universities in the state of Kentucky report they use at work. Utilizing a basic interpretive qualitative approach in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain the…