In this study, we investigated how well two different student-centred instructional models fostered engineering students' learning in a time of crisis. We analysed students' (N = 375) approaches to learning during four engineering mathematics courses in a Finnish university before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students' deep and surface…

The use of the graduate teaching assistant (GTA) to support the teaching activities of higher education institutions has been growing over the years and it is now a well-established practice. Conventionally training sessions, consisting usually of workshops, remain general and overemphasise policies, not providing sufficient preparation for…

In higher engineering education, students' learning outcomes are typically measured via tests and examinations. In that way, so it is claimed, students have reached the learning goals intended by the teachers. However, students' learning experiences and perceived learning gains remain unclear. To gain insights into their perceived learning gains,…

Increasingly higher education programs are made learner centred and flexible to face societal changes. Challenge-based learning (CBL) is an educational concept shaping these open and flexible programs. This article aims to articulate a framework for analysing CBL characteristics within and between study components in academic curricula. It…

Engineering curricula need to integrate global competence learning to ensure that graduates can succeed in globalised labour markets. In this context, this study examines disciplinary engineering courses, focusing on the key characteristics of globally competent educators and teaching approaches in terms of learning environments and course…

Many engineering education research faculty have put much effort into providing empirical evidence demonstrating the success of student-centred teaching strategies in the hopes that this evidence will result in widespread changes of engineering teaching practices. Unfortunately, these student-centred strategies have not been widely adopted as many…

This article presents how Problem- and Project-Based Learning (PBL) in engineering education can exploit the theoretical framework of the Space-Time (ST)-Continuum, according to which educational contexts can be classified in terms of the tightness vs. looseness of the relevant conceptual space S and available time T. By crossing these two…

To favour an early exposure of students to professional practice, several engineering higher education institutions have implemented integrated curricula, as proposed in the international CDIO educational framework. In the 1990s, the French engineering education accreditation body introduced in its quality standards a compulsory internship period.…

Most of the contemporary critiques of university teaching are variants of a central argument that sets up a polarity between socalled 'traditional' teaching, often termed 'teacher-centred' and 'transmissive', and approaches that by contrast are considered 'student-centred', often also referred to with the phrase 'active learning'. This editorial…

Many traditional engineering schools are struggling to balance the calls to provide an innovative engineering education that meet the demands of graduates and their employers with the constraints and momentum of their existing curriculum. In this paper we present the conceptual design behind a framework that integrates existing discipline-specific…

The goal of this study is to explore the impact of a technology-integrated project-based learning intervention (ReaLabs) on students' learning attitudes, behaviours and self-regulated learning (SRL). A group of 49 mechanical engineering students was taught using this intervention and a group of 50 students in the same specialty was taught using…

As the introduction of active learning techniques such as project-based learning (PjBL) becomes more widespread in engineering schools, it is important to understand the implications and development needs of staff in the transition to this mode of teaching. Through a review of education literature and a structured interview process, a set of…

Convincing teachers to implement pedagogical innovations is notoriously hard. This research project investigated the shift in pedagogical approach among a small group of faculty as they replaced traditional lecture-based methods with problem-based learning projects. Interviews were conducted with eight drivers of this change, around the question:…

The aim of this paper is to describe the design of chemical engineering laboratory sessions in order to focus them on the learning company approach. This is an activity carried out in the classroom similar to the activities that exist in real companies. This could lead classroom practice to a more cooperative learning and a different style of…

This paper reports numbers about the author's experience, spanning over 13 academic years, of teaching an introductory course about geographical databases to students of the Master degree in Information Engineering at L'Aquila University (Italy). The first eight editions of the course were delivered according to the teacher-centred approach, while…