Laboratories are an important part of science and engineering education, especially in the field of electronics. Yet very little research into the benefits of such labs to student learning exists. In particular, it is not well known what students do and, even more importantly, "think" during electronics laboratories. Therefore, we…

How do cross-bracing, geometry, and base isolation help buildings withstand earthquakes? These important structural design features involve fundamental geometry that elementary school students can readily model and understand. The problem activity, Designing an Earthquake-Resistant Building, was undertaken by several classes of sixth- grade…

This article explores challenges and opportunities associated with sharing qualitative data in engineering education research. This exploration is theoretically informed by an existing framework of interpretive research quality with a focus on the concept of Communicative Validation. Drawing on practice anecdotes from the authors' work, the…

The Academic Pathway Study (APS) research program within National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE) ran from 2003-2010. It amassed a collection of longitudinal as well as cross-sectional data sets, of varying research method types and formats, from four different primary cohorts that included over…

The main purpose of this study was to determine the direct and indirect effects of mathematics anxiety on achievement in mathematics of first year science and engineering students. Data were obtained from a descriptive survey from 245 (201 male, 44 female) students from five departments of two faculties. Instruments used for data collection were…

In this dissertation, I researched factors that predicted women's likelihood of persistence in college engineering. Women are less likely to study engineering in college than men, and when they do, they are more likely to switch out to another major. As a male-dominated field, micro-aggressions and other forms of discrimination from males are not…

This research is a sequential explanatory mixed methods study seeking to understand the influences of mathematics self-efficacy (math SE) on the behavior and attitudes of engineering students with poor math preparation behavior and attitudes in their first college math courses. The quantitative phase of this research assessed the math SE of…

Reflective of current trends in industry, engineering design professionals are expected to have knowledge of 3D modeling software. Responding to this need, engineering curricula seek to effectively prepare students for the workforce by requiring instruction in the use of 3D parametric solid modeling. Recent literature contains many examples that…

The use of audience response systems (ARSs) or "clickers" in higher education has increased over the recent years, predominantly owing to their ability to actively engage students, for promoting individual and group learning, and for providing instantaneous feedback to students and teachers. This paper describes how group-based ARS…

Interdisciplinary programs in schools of social work are growing in scope and number. This article reports on collaboration between a school of social work and a school of engineering, which is forging a new area of interdisciplinary education. The program engages social work students working alongside engineering students in a team approach to…

The lifetime of Frontiers in Education (FIE), 42 years and counting, has been a time of many innovations in engineering and computing education. The FIE Conference has become the premiere conference for presentation and discussion of excellent educational research and innovative curricula in engineering education. This accomplishment would not…

This paper reports on research investigating six middle school teachers without engineering degrees as they taught an engineering unit on the engineering design process. Videotaped classroom sessions and teacher interviews were analyzed to understand the subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge the teachers used and developed as they…

This article provides a detailed account of a rubric revision process to address seven common problems to which rubrics are prone: lack of consistency and parallelism; the presence of "orphan" and "widow" words and phrases; redundancy in descriptors; inconsistency in the focus of qualifiers; limited routes to partial credit;…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the problematics of learning across knowledge boundaries in organizational settings. The paper specifically explores learning processes that emerge, when a new knowledge domain is introduced into an existing organizational practice with the aim of creating a new combined practice.…

This is a reflective essay on my own experience while learning and teaching in multicultural classroom in higher education in the UK. It emphasizes the indispensable relationship between the two fields of teaching--learning and communication processes in such heterogeneous environment. The essay focuses on how, in such context, teachers are key…