This paper illustrates the design-based learning (DBL) approach to promoting the deep learning of students and improving the quality of teaching in engineering design education. We performed three aspects of research with students in a typical educational activity. The first study investigated students' deep learning before and after the DBL…

Making as a design-centered learning activity has recently received significant attention in education. We use literacies--how individuals use representations to learn--to explore the STEM literacy practices of experienced designers and makers. Describing makers' representational practices in STEM contexts can inform the design of literacy…

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education has been identified as a keystone teaching and learning area for developing students' knowledge and skills on interdisciplinary critical thinking and problem solving (We use the term 'interdisciplinary' because discipline knowledge and methods were integrated from different…

Different knowledge types have their own specific features and tasks in the learning process. Procedural knowledge is used in craft and technology education when students solve problems individually and share their working knowledge with others. This study presents a detailed analysis of a one student's learning process in technology education and…

Design is a powerful weapon for modern companies so it is important to have excellent designers in the industry. The purpose of this study is to explore the learning problems and the resources that students use to overcome problems in undergraduate industrial design studio courses. A survey with open-type questions was conducted to collect data.…

Initiatives to integrate engineering design in the elementary science classroom have become increasingly evident in both national reform documents and classroom practice. Missing from these efforts is a purposeful attempt to capture students' designerly thinking and dialogues as they engage in the process. The purpose of this study was to…

The study aimed to examine the relationship between alternative approaches towards problem solving/design teaching (structural or functional), students' mental modeling of the design process, and the quality of their solutions to design tasks. The "structural" approach emphasizes the need for an ordered and systematic learning of the design…

When undertaking design and technology activities, children are provided with opportunities to create solutions to problems in new and innovative ways. The mental processes involved in the generation of new ideas may be enhanced when children's attention is not focussed and is allowed to wander in a relaxed and uncompetitive environment. Research…

Discussion of recent changes in technology education focuses on the learning process of technological problem solving. A conceptual framework is proposed that includes knowledge, skills, and cognitive models. An evaluation-modification model flow chart is also explained. (Contains 52 references.) (LRW)

A study of 261 New Zealand students (ages 6-15) investigating technological capability in undertaking technological problem-solving tasks determined that focus on end-product precluded students from fully considering processes to solve problems, that technological approaches were influenced by classroom culture, and that existing concepts of…

Traditional instructional methodology in the Information System Design (ISD) environment lacks explicit strategies for promoting the cognitive skills of prospective system designers. This contributes to the fragmented knowledge and low motivational and creative involvement of learners in system design tasks. In addition, present ISD methodologies,…