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The present paper investigates the gender perspective of flipped classroom. In particular, it considers how the collaborative setting of in-class group-work affect the female population of students. The paper draws on an in-depth analysis of the interview with one such student. The focus of this interview was on interactional collaboration between peers during group work activities in a mathematics course. Such work is vital in a flipped classroom arrangement. The student, called Sofia, highlighted arguments of value for a deeper investigation. The analysis draws on Bjerrum Nielsen’s framework with four different gender perspectives (2003). Our analysis illuminates a number of arguments about interactions and interpretations of gender and challenges when collaborating in groups in a flipped classroom setting. Arguments informs both context and individual levels of the setting. What is realised in the case of Sofia is that there are dualistic viewpoints raised within all gender perspectives, sometimes conflicting each other. Result is that guidance from a teacher in formation of groups is necessary but will need careful considerations.

Based on the linear regression algorithm, this paper uses the basic linear regression algorithm and the kernel linear regression algorithm to construct the relationship model between academic input and academic achievement based on linear regression and to determine the independent variables, dependent variables and control variables in the model. The engineering students of East China Normal University are selected as the research object, the research instrument is determined, the research index is determined according to the survey, and the research hypothesis is proposed, and then the research and analysis design of the impact of academic input on academic achievement is completed. Using reliability and validity to test the validity of the questionnaire, the initial data of the study can be obtained by distributing the questionnaire, and correlation analysis and regression analysis are used to carry out an empirical study of academic input and academic achievement based on linear regression. The results show that the correlation coefficient between academic input and academic achievement of master’s degree students is R=0.892 and R2=0.792, indicating that the predictive variance of academic input on academic achievement is 89.2%. The effects of the dimensions under the academic input on the social adjustment dimension under the academic achievement were, in descending order, as follows: active cooperation > teacher-student interaction > educational enrichment > academic challenge > campus support. This study comprehensively analyzes the impact of academic engagement on academic achievement, and colleges and universities should change the test of students’ ability to memorize knowledge and skills to the test of students’ ability to analyze and solve problems by applying what they have learned.

In the realm of higher education, the pursuit of interdisciplinarity aims to foster the exchange and integration of fragmented knowledge, yielding transformative outcomes. Employing a phenomenological method, this study delves into the interdisciplinary experience of twelve students from a first-year undergraduate calculus class. Through the analysis of written questionnaires, focus group sessions, and supplementary qualitative data, a comprehensive understanding of students’ interdisciplinary encounters is unveiled and organized into three main categories: what students think about interdisciplinarity, how they act when being involved in integrations and what external factors are involved in shaping their experience. This paper presents emergent experiential themes, shedding light on both individual and collective experiences, as students navigate and enrich their calculus learning through interdisciplinary connections.

Abstract Background Despite increasing awareness of the importance of promoting the social responsibility of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals, few intervention programs have been developed to enhance the social responsibility of college students or adults in the STEM fields. In this paper, we introduced a new instructional program, called ENACT (engage, navigate, anticipate, conduct, and take action) and examined whether the program increased the social responsibility among safety engineering students (N = 46) recruited from a university located in a southern metropolitan area of South Korea. Results In the ENACT program, the college students selected and explored socioscientific issues (SSIs) of their own interest then autonomously engaged in scientific and engineering group projects spanning a semester where they developed solutions to the SSIs and shared them with their communities. At the conclusion of the intervention in this study, they displayed an increased social responsibility regarding the consideration of societal needs and demands, civic engagement and services, and participation in policy decision-making. Social responsibility scores measured after the intervention (post-test) correlated with students' willingness to voluntarily participate in projects involving SSIs. In addition, the intervention effects were more pronounced for the students who initially had medium and low social responsibility scores. Conclusions We have shown that social responsibility can be nurtured by systemic instructional approaches, and increased social responsibility can lead to greater commitment to resolving SSIs. Mastering engineering content knowledge and skills is the key element of engineering curricula. However, we are compelled to incorporate social responsibility into the STEM curriculum. We believe that the ENACT model contributes toward this end.

Spatial abilities are recognized as one of the main factors for success in technical (STEM) professions, especially in the field of architecture and civil engineering. Given that this kind of competence is not paid enough attention to in the early stages of education, students arriving at technical faculties have difficulties in mastering the subject of Descriptive geometry and solving spatial problems in general. There are different opinions on whether these abilities are inborn, if they could be improved and if they could, in what way. In this paper, the relation between spatial abilities and the subject of Descriptive geometry at the University of Banja Luka will be examined. The study involved 175 first-year students of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (FACEG) who took a spatial ability test before and after attending the course. The results of the tests were then compared in order to determine whether their spatial abilities were improved and, if so, whether the mastering the course had an impact on it. The results showed significant difference among those three professions. The spatial ability test used in the research was customized for this purpose and will be described in the paper.

A practical intervention was devised in order to promote and to assess Critical Thinking in undergraduate students of Engineering. First, in collaboration with specialists in education, the concept of Critical Thinking, and its skills and dispositions on which to focus on, was determined. Second, a teaching strategy was designed in order to be as effective as possible, considering the limitations of the intervention. This strategy took advantage of the computer lab sessions where discussion and questioning encouraged the development of Critical Thinking. Then, the instruments to assess the acquired skills and attitudes of the students were developed. Finally, a quantitative analysis of the results was conducted in order to evaluate the validity and reliability of the strategy. This paper presents a full description of the intervention carried on for two years. Besides the desired effects on the students’ performance, some conclusions regarding the development of appropriate instruments to deal with a large group of students are drawn. This intervention has proven to be effective in order to help the students to develop their Critical Thinking skills, and it is particularly suitable for large groups.

Many engineering subjects rely on the interpretation of symbolic, numeric and graphic representations. Engineering students have challenges pertaining to their mathematical understanding of their actions with a computer algebra system (CAS). We investigated how a mathematical modelling task could mediate varied levels of mathematical understanding. When engineering students are exposed to a CAS environment, they habitually engage in programming activities without considering the computerised outputs. The purpose of this paper was to ascertain South African engineering students’ actions that can mediate broader levels of mathematical understanding in a CAS by utilising the Pirie- Kieren model of growth in mathematical understanding. Thirteen participants agreed to engage collaboratively in a mathematical modelling task. The task was analysed by means of content analysis following a deductive research approach. The findings disclosed that engineering students interdepend on paper-and-pen, computerised and reflective actions in their growth of mathematical understanding. Engineering students can be assisted in mediated and folding-back actions in order to fluctuate back and forth on their way to a more sound mathematical understanding. Explicit planning and sequence of subtasks can support engineering students to merge new levels of mathematics understanding with past comprehensions. Thoroughly planned modelling tasks can mediate novel levels of mathematical understanding when engineering students learn with a CAS.

Many engineering subjects rely on the interpretation of symbolic, numeric and graphic representations. Engineering students have challenges pertaining to their mathematical understanding of their actions with a computer algebra system (CAS). We investigated how a mathematical modelling task could mediate varied levels of mathematical understanding. When engineering students are exposed to a CAS environment, they habitually engage in programming activities without considering the computerised outputs. The purpose of this paper was to ascertain South African engineering students’ actions that can mediate broader levels of mathematical understanding in a CAS by utilising the Pirie- Kieren model of growth in mathematical understanding. Thirteen participants agreed to engage collaboratively in a mathematical modelling task. The task was analysed by means of content analysis following a deductive research approach. The findings disclosed that engineering students interdepend on paper-and-pen, computerised and reflective actions in their growth of mathematical understanding. Engineering students can be assisted in mediated and folding-back actions in order to fluctuate back and forth on their way to a more sound mathematical understanding. Explicit planning and sequence of subtasks can support engineering students to merge new levels of mathematics understanding with past comprehensions. Thoroughly planned modelling tasks can mediate novel levels of mathematical understanding when engineering students learn with a CAS.

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the student’s academic performance in the School of Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Bogota Campus. The impact is assessed from a quantitative approach based on (i) student’s grades, (ii) student’s progress in their curriculum and (iii) dropped courses. In addition, results from a faculty survey (qualitative approach) are presented to expand some explanatory perspectives on the main academic changes during the pandemic. Results show a significant increase in the average numerical grade as well as in the probability of a course being dropped during the pandemic conditions. Furthermore, the student’s average curriculum progress per semester grew approximately 18%. A differentiated academic impact, depending on sex and family income was observed which may be included in future post-pandemic programs. The survey reflects a new faculty’s perspective on evaluation tools and methodologies.

The article looks into the English language needs of engineering students and young graduates at one of the leading technological universities in Russia - NUST MISiS. The authors used a mixed methodology approach to explore how often and in what real-life situations current and former students use the English language. 107 paper questionnaires were completed by master’s degree students in class and the answers were counted; 123 responses were received online from 2015 and 2016 graduates and processed statistically; 17 structured interviews with college administrators and subject professors were recorded and then coded for the main categories. The results demonstrate that despite dramatic changes at NUST MISiS under The Competitiveness Enhancement Program 5-100, good English competence is not a priority, with the majority of young graduates being ‘unsure’ about its benefits for their career and some administrators calling it ‘the least required competence’. However, the English language needs vary across subject departments. Thus, students majoring in new materials and programming use English on a regular basis, while economists and metallurgists might not really need it in both studies and future job. Overall, the most required skill is reading, and the least used ones are oral communication and academic writing in English. The authors discuss how orientation on potential rather than actual needs can affect the ESP/EAP course design in the context of engineering education in Russia.

This research addresses some personalization aspects of education in electrical engineering. Its goal is to help students and educators evaluate the complexity of the disciplines they have chosen for studying and optimize the order of the learned courses and topics. A new instrument, namely, an educational thesaurus, is presented and its assembling procedure is shown. The offered educational thesauri implemented in the labs and integrated in the exercises have become smart platforms suitable for design and management of the students’ individual knowledge domains. The ontology-based Web manuals in Electronics and Power Electronics for the Bachelor study cycle have been introduced. An example of ontology graph to be applied within the Master study cycle has been developed and explained in the paper. According to the authors’ investigation, the decrease of stress caused by the new educational environment and achievement of success in learning were observed thanks to the individual knowledge domain organization proposed in this study.

Within the framework of globalization, current events are diverse and heterogeneous. The General Coordination of Technological and Polytechnic Universities in Mexico (CGUTyPM) adopted a competency-based educational model with the objective of preparing professionals not only with the necessary knowledge but also with adequate skills, attitudes, and values needed in the global economy. With the aim of complementing the necessary training of future engineers, academic programs of Mexico’s polytechnic universities have integrated into curricula courses in human development that address generic competencies. Development of competencies for students is complicated by the fact that within a globalized society it is necessary to learn profession-specific competencies in addition to generic competencies. However, in higher education, profession-specific competencies are commonly assumed to be of greater importance, and generic competencies are not prioritized. This paper presents the authors’ research findings detailing responses from 150 students in different engineering programs. For analysis, a cross-sectional descriptive methodology was employed, using a questionnaire completed by student participants. The results show a clear need for explicit integration of the generic competencies into general curricula in particular, those of basic professional knowledge, problem-solving, commitment to ethics (honesty) and responsibility. The authors conclude that the continued teaching of the generic competencies at the university level is essential to student learning and provides students with strategies for adapting to the ever-changing environment of a labor sector situated in a globalized world.

Online learning platforms provide an opportunity to better understand students' weaknesses by tracking both their learning behavior and knowledge. This information can then be used to assist teachers in making instructional decisions and to further guide those who are at risk of failure. In this paper, we tracked student learning data from a C++ programming course over a whole semester of their freshman year via the Trustie platform. A total of 17,854 code submissions were collected. We then used CppCheck, SonarQube and Trustie to capture the quality characteristics and submission characteristics of the code, including lineOfCode, cyclomaticComplexity, codeSmell, syntacticError, averageScore, submission, and logicError, and analyzed the impact of code quality on the assignment work results. Several factors were discovered that we believe can help teachers to develop more effective teaching strategies.

Higher education in Spain has to deal with constant troubles and uncertainties due to the economic crisis, high rates of unemployment in young people, lack for study habits in secondary school and legal fluctuations. This uncertain environment does not foster student effort and it is behind the important rates of abandon in higher education. The Bologna Process was thought to create a new paradigm in higher education in the European Union. However, the changes came from the top (governments) to the bottom (lectures and students) so they were not properly supported by specialized training oriented to lecturers. It did not include the appropriate changes in lower education stages (secondary education) to prepare student when facing University. Therefore, in the past decade several new teaching methodologies have appeared to deal with student demotivation and to fight against dropouts. Those methodologies try to keep the students engaged during the whole course paying more attention to their learning process, attitudes, motivations and expectations. Consequently, in this paper, we present a four-year experiment whose main objective is to keep students engaged during the whole year and to foster their motivation in order to increase their learning outcomes. The experiment is based on the application of gamification to the assessment process emulating a traditional platform video-game, like Super Mario. The results show that this experiment was positive for most students who achieved good marks and good rates of task completion.

Our diverse team of educators at Colorado State University are redefining what it means to teach and learn in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Supported by a five-year “RED” grant from the National Science Foundation, we are, in effect, throwing away courses to overcome the challenges of the current engineering educational system. Approaching the degree from a holistic perspective, we no longer view our program as a set of disparate courses taught by autonomous (and isolated) faculty, but as an integrated system that fosters collaboration among faculty and students. This paper describes our new organizational and pedagogical model, which emphasizes knowledge integration and interweaves thematic content threads throughout the curriculum. We also share our process for implementing the new approach, along with the successes and challenges that we have experienced along the way. Through this project, we strive to become a catalyst for change in engineering education.

It is commonly known that humour has an implication on the process of teaching and learning. However, there is still limited study done on the implication of humour in teaching and learning engineering courses. This paper studies the perception and experience of engineering lecturers and students towards the incorporation of sense of humour in the teaching and learning of engineering courses. Online and offline surveys were conducted on the students and lecturers from the school of engineering, Taylors’ University respectively. Several interesting insights were drawn from the responses with the general consensus from both students and lecturers that humour helps in enhancing the teaching and learning process. Real case examples of how the lecturers deliver their lectures with humour were also presented.

A brief overview of the objective criteria and unified standards in tertiary technical education, developed and controlled by European professional associations is done. The reasons are given for which engineering mathematics is a serious barrier for the students in technical universities - lack of the constructive relationships between: universities and secondary schools; teachers and students in the learning process; discrepancies in the curricula of different university departments. The interdisciplinary approach is not used as a factor of motivation at different levels, and the contemporary teaching tools and methods are missing as well. The knowledge and skills evaluation and assessment are not organized effectively. Short and long term measures to overcome the math learning problems of the prospective engineers are indicated in respect to the basic educational principles. Experience in this line is shared - computer-based training aids and tests, compulsory term papers and consultations for the students with lower scores, teamwork is recommended. The long-term measures involve introducing the laboratory exercises, teacher's teams from different departments and faculties for common training materials and classes, joint work with faculty and students; attracting and training of good teachers and continuous improvement of their qualification.

This paper deals with two of the key factors in the L2 learning process, namely, learning motivation and strategies. A group of engineering students from Bilbao (Spain) having a good command of English for General Purposes (EGP) and taking a course in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) are the basis of a study in which types of English Learning Motivation (ELM), i.e. intrinsic and extrinsic (integrative and instrumental) (Brown, 2000), and types of English Learning Strategies (ELSs), i.e. memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies (Oxford, 1990), are analysed. As expected, Instrumental ELM and Cognitive and Metacognitive ELSs are the most widely used by these learners. However, some striking and significant differences appear in connection with: 1) male vs female Intrinsic ELM and Social ELSs; 2) 21-23 vs 24-27 age group Instrumental (EGP) ELM, and Metacognitive and Social ELSs. Finally, with respect to the prospective correlation between ELM and ELS types, the results seem to confirm that there are signicant correlations among most of them; e.g., Instrumental (ESP) ELM is positively and significantly correlated with all but Affective ELM.

This paper describes an educational simulator developed in the software Engineering Equation Solver to simulate the behavior of a vapor compression system. The application is focused on educational purposes, specifi cally for handling skills in refrigeration facilities by students in engineering careers. Using this simulator, the students are able to analyze easily the infl uence of the measured parameters (such as the compressor rotation speed, volumetric fl ow rates and temperature of the secondary fl uids) on the energy performance of the facility and its components. The virtual test bench consists of a primary screen showing a general scheme of the vapor compression facility with input and output parameters. From this primary screen, the performance of the main components can be analyzed. Finally, this virtual test bench was tested by engineering students, concluding that the simulator is an interesting tool as improvement and support for learning in different subjects.