An engineering professor of a first-year thermodynamics course and a PhD student with a focus in engineering education in a large research university in Canada participated in an ethnographic action research study with the intention of increasing active learning in the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning. Unexpected findings…

This paper presents findings from an on-going international study of Early Childhood (EC) teachers' and children's use of Internet of Toys (IoToys) to understand possibilities for developing children's cognitive capacities (e.g., creativity, inquiry, engineering design thinking). The study employed a Design Based Research (DBR) method, where…

Many preservice and practicing elementary teachers are familiar with the 5E learning cycle. This cycle provides a relatively simple, alliteratively memorable framework for teaching science in which lessons (or even entire units of instruction) consist of five distinct phases: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration/Extension (hereafter,…

This case study trialled the introduction of a student-response system (Top Hat) in a third-year engineering Fluid Mechanics course (n = 44) to improve student engagement, motivation and cognition. It was recognised that for the potential benefits of student-response systems (SRSs) to be fully realised, more time must be allocated for student…

A unified academic model based on the project-based learning (PBL) methodology was implemented, in the 2012-2013 period, in the School of Engineering at Universidad Europea de Madrid. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether teachers and students participating in the capstone projects feel that the objectives for which this methodology was…

For a structural engineer, effective communication and interaction with architects cannot be underestimated as a key skill to success throughout their professional career. Structural engineers and architects have to share a common language and understanding of each other in order to achieve the most desirable architectural and structural designs.…

The authors have developed a first-year fluids course for a class of around 230 aerospace, civil and mechanical engineering students. This paper aims to show how the teaching and assessment methodology was applied to the challenge of a large class. The lectures featured formal teaching interspersed with active learning elements. Smaller group…

This paper reports on findings from a three-year study of project-based learning implemented in the first year of the Industrial Engineering and Management programme, at the University of Minho, Portugal. This particular model was inspired on project-led education (PLE), following Powell and Weenk's [2003. "Project-Led Engineering…

Cooperative learning may improve students' motivation, understanding of course concepts, and academic performance. This study therefore enhanced a cooperative, group-project learning technique with technology resources to determine whether doing so improved students' deep learning and performance. A sample of 118 engineering students, randomly…

Two critical issues are of great concern in engineering education today: the increasingly broad requirements for 21st-century engineers and the lack of effective instructional approaches needed to produce students who meet the requirements. However, pedagogical approaches in engineering have remained relatively unchanged for the last 40 years and…