One of the most challenging tasks for teachers in projects is to develop creative ideas. Due to the linear system perspective of education, fostering students' creativity is restricted. However, engineering design and scientific process skills that comprise creativity have an iterative structure. An iterative process-oriented education enables…

Mind mapping is a visualization tool used in instruction that can be applied by learners to generate ideas, take notes, organize thinking, and develop concepts. Instruction using mind mapping is becoming increasingly commonly used in education. However, research has produced inconsistent results regarding the effectiveness of mind mapping-based…

Research shows that collaborative work promotes student learning and improves social skills, but teachers are still exploring how to best support problem-solving in a small group context, particularly in the science classroom. This study builds on prior research to characterise teacher interactions with small groups in secondary science and…

Recent education reforms including the "Next Generation Science Standards" emphasize integrating engineering into K-12 science instruction. Although prior studies have characterized engineering design (ED) in K-12 settings, no validated protocols attempt to characterize ED integration in secondary science classrooms. The present study…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" framework outlines scientific and engineering practices as a key element of student development. Educators are just beginning to discover effective and meaningful ways to teach science content to students with intellectual disability; however, the literature on teaching science practices is still…

This study explored the effectiveness of online instructional modules for providing supplementary instruction in basic mathematics and physics concepts. The modules were developed in accordance with a cognitive apprenticeship model. Participants (N = 47) were students enrolled in a required Statics course at a midwestern university. Participants…

Students in first-year physics courses generally focus on hunting for suitable equations and formulas when tackling a variety of physical situations and physics problems. There is a need for a framework that can guide them to disciplinary ways of thinking and help them begin to think like physicists. To serve this end, in this study, a framework…

In this paper, we report on a project concerned with the role of cognition during problem solving. We specifically explore the categories of mental representations that students work with during problem solving of different representational task formats. The sample, consisting of 19 engineering students taking a calculus-based physics course,…

This paper describes a method aimed at pointing out the quality of the mental models undergraduate engineering students deploy when asked to create explanations for phenomena or processes and/or use a given model in the same context. Student responses to a specially designed written questionnaire are quantitatively analyzed using…

This study focuses on students' use of the mathematical concept of differentials in physics problem solving. For instance, in electrostatics, students need to set up an integral to find the electric field due to a charged bar, an activity that involves the application of mathematical differentials (e.g., "dr," "dq"). In this…

Size and scale cognition is a critical ability associated with reasoning with concepts in different disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As such, researchers and educators have identified the need for young learners and their educators to become scale-literate. Informed by developmental psychology literature and recent…

The overall aim of this article is to introduce case teaching to college professors who may wish to increase their students' level of engagement with science, mathematics, and engineering. Case teaching is an incredibly adaptable instructional method able to involve students in higher levels of cognitive processing. The explicit purposes of this…

Expresses the opinion that education has overemphasized the written word and needs to move back to the oral tradition. Warns that Americans are trained to use the left brain whereas much of engineering needs right brain processing. Gives perspectives to improve engineering education. (MVL)

Notes that almost all computer engineering textbooks present algorithms using only verbal methods. Poses that engineering students' ability to handle graphic representation is crucial yet information is presented verbally. Summarizes the results of 12 replications on learner preference for graphic or verbal algorithmic techniques. (MVL)