Background: Systematic review or systematic literature review (SLR) methodologies are a powerful tool for evidence-based decision making. The method originated in the medical sciences but has since been adopted by other disciplines, including engineering education (EE). Purpose: We aimed to answer two research questions: (i) To what extent is the…

Background: The importance of spatial abilities for individuals' success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains has been well established. Researchers have also emphasized the need to train engineering students in spatial ability. Although virtual reality (VR) offers prospects for training spatial abilities, research…

Background: This paper begins with the premise that ethics and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) overlap in engineering. Yet, the topics of ethics and DEI often inhabit different scholarly spaces in engineering education, thus creating a divide between these topics in engineering education research, teaching, and practice. Purpose: We…

Background: Engineering educators prepare students for responsible, ethical, and socially aware engineering practice by "contextualizing" engineering in a variety of ways. Recently, ABET and the NAE have prioritized engineers' ability to make judgments considering a variety of contexts and specifically advocated for building engineers'…

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…

Background: Complexity theory (CT) has been used in response to the need for a different mindset than the classical engineering paradigm. The engineering education research (EER) community may benefit from the knowledge of how CT has been used in the field. Purpose: Aiming to provide a broad view of CT in EER, the following research questions…

Background: Visual representations are pervasive in electrical engineering instruction in various instructional settings. Further, electrical engineering instruction often requires students to extend simple visual representations to learn about more complex visualization in subsequent instruction. Yet, students often struggle to understand…

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.…

Background: Real-world engineering problems are ill-defined and complex, and solving them may arouse negative epistemic affect (feelings experienced within problem-solving). These feelings fall into sequenced patterns (affective pathways). Over time, these patterns can alter students' attitudes toward engineering. Meta-affect (affect or cognition…

Background: Challenge-based learning (CBL) is a pedagogical approach increasingly adopted in engineering education. Despite its growing practice, there is little consensus in the literature about how CBL is implemented in engineering curricula and what experiences teachers and students have in relation to it. Purpose: To address this gap, the…

Background: In the United States, there is increased demand to expand the engineering workforce. Many military veterans have received technical training that can be leveraged in engineering. Their pursuit of engineering degrees has great potential to expand and diversify the engineering workforce. Purpose: This study examines the pathways of US…

Background: Beliefs are a complex research construct with deep connections to innumerable different research areas and agendas. Engineering education researchers are increasingly studying beliefs, and synergy across these efforts can lead to a greater impact in translating beliefs research into educational practice. Purpose: Our purpose was to…

Background: Engineering students experience high levels of distress and low rates of mental health treatment seeking, yet there is a gap in knowledge around how this compares with that of students in other fields of study. Given the influence of social identity (e.g., gender identity, race/ethnicity) on mental health and treatment seeking, it is…

Background: Collaboration--including coordination, communication, and teamwork--is crucial to engineering practice. However, engineering students are often perceived as lacking key collaboration skills at the time of graduation. Purpose: We used structuration theory to explore how differences between students and practitioners' collaboration…

Background: Engineering's introduction into K-12 classrooms has been purported to support meaningful and inclusive learning environments. However, teachers must contend with dominant discourses embedded in US schooling that justify inequitable distributions of resources. Purpose: Drawing on Gee's notion of discourses, we examine how teachers…