A measure of collective efficacy was developed and administered to undergraduates working in project teams in engineering courses. Findings in each of two samples revealed that the measure contained a single factor and was related to ratings of team cohesion and personal efficacy. Collective efficacy was also found to relate to indicators of team…

In this study, Data Envelopment Analysis is used to measure relative efficiencies of academic departments of an engineering college. Input and output criteria are determined and measured utilizing the academic personnel performance measurement scheme of the College. New measures are developed to compare departments of different disciplines. The…

Purpose--The paper seeks to examine the latest stage in a process of change aimed at introducing concepts of sustainable development into the activities of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, UK. Design/methodology/approach--The rationale behind defining the skills which future engineers require is discussed and vehicles for…

Integrating sustainability into an undergraduate engineering program at the University of Technology, Sydney has been a challenging project. The authors of this paper have been participant observers of the integration process. In this paper, they have attempted an analysis of that process, focussing on the dynamics of the network of people and…

Engineering students in technical universities in Sweden, as probably in many other countries, tend to treat mathematics as a mechanical subject in which you do calculations and manipulations and there is very little explanation. In order to create deeper understanding, verbal or written explanations by students can be beneficial. In our study we…

This paper gives a synopsis of an extensive programme of case studies on real uses of computer-assisted learning (CAL) materials within UK engineering degree programmes. The programme was conducted between 2000 and 2003 and followed a questionnaire-based survey looking at CAL use in the UK and in Australia. The synopsis reveals a number of key…

In a world sustained and interconnected by technology, people make choices. Therefore, they have to consider that technology is subject to analysis and interpretation because it is designed by humans with varied histories, experiences and cultures. To generate an understanding of the technological phenomenon, this article proposes to view the…

It is customary for engineering syllabuses to include a substantial amount of mathematics, a fact traditionally justified through their usefulness in the analysis and resolution of many technological problems. In other words, usually the role of mathematics in engineering is emphasized. Nevertheless, the opposite viewpoint could be considered as…

Every year in the United States, the federal government, insurance companies and automobile manufacturers wreck hundreds of cars for safety-testing purposes. All this crashing comes in an effort to rate vehicular safety for the public. Inspired by numerous movies with car chases, dramatic wrecks and television commercials showing car safety tests,…

Technology education is being taught today in almost every high school and middle school in America. Over 1000 technology education departments are now including pre-engineering education in their programs. According to these authors, the time has come for the profession to agree that including pre-engineering education in technology education…

Findings are presented from a study of undergraduate students' experiences of understanding in first-year engineering. At the end of their first year of study 86 Swedish students of electrical engineering and computer science were asked to reflect in writing on their experiences of studying and learning. Fifteen of them also took part in…

This study examines the interplay of institutional environments and organizational contexts in shaping the responses of four professional schools (public health, business, social work, and engineering) to diversity-related pressures, expectations, requirements, and incentives. The role of market demand in structuring postsecondary approaches to…

The overall goal of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is to have all students--100 percent--achieving at proficient levels by 2014. Between now and 2014, states, districts, and schools must take a series of specific steps toward that goal. The law requires that educators focus intensively on challenging academic standards and assessments in…

We describe the design and implementation of our Hierarchical Learning Ensemble (HLE) model, a pedagogy that assembles interdisciplinary teams of graduate, undergraduate, and secondary-level students to solve science and engineering problems. Our goal is to sensitize undergraduates to working in heterogeneous groups and thus better prepare them…

This article argues for the use of teacher-generated corpora in content-based courses. Using a content course for engineering and architecture students as an example, the article explains how a corpus consisting of texts from textbooks and journal articles helped students learn grammar, vocabulary, and writing. The article explains how the corpus…