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In this paper, we discuss the ethical responsibilities of being a role model as an engineering teacher in higher education. We draw on virtue ethics, care ethics, ethics of freedom and role modeling theory, using Grande's framework for engineering education. We argue that the three ethical theories give different views on the ethics of role modeling as a teacher. Virtue ethics implies that the teacher should behave as virtuously as possible to encourage students to emulate character traits. Care ethics implies that the ethics of role modeling is fundamentally about care practices, emphazising relationships and values such as attentiveness and responsibility. Ethics of freedom urges the teacher to grant individuals opportunities to develop and be free from the control of others. By using role modeling and ethical theory, we aim to show how theory has an impact on both teaching practices and could underpin empirical research in engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational success is mainly based on the formation of effective learners. Students' learning is affected by several variables, such as intelligence, motivation, teaching and learning approaches. Research showed that approaches to learning are among one of the most important variables that influence students' learning quality. They are related to how students experience and organize the subject matter of a learning task. It is important to understand what and how students learn, rather than how much they remember. This paper aims to test the validity of the Turkish version of the Approaches and Study Skill Inventory for Students (ASSIST), which explores the types of learning approaches (deep surface or strategic), applied to the first-year undergraduate engineering students having mathematics as a compulsory course at Istanbul Technical University. Validation has been done by explanatory factor analysis. Afterwards, the relationship between the learning approaches and extracurricular factors is critiqued. For this purpose, the association between the language of the subject (English or Turkish) and the students' learning approaches are investigated. Similarly, the relationship between learning approaches and parental education level as well as high school type is examined. Correlations between learning approaches conceptions of learning and teaching types are also tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedback can improve or impair students' learning performance, depending on its timing and constructiveness. Given the diversity of students' study goals and overall performance in the assessment tasks within most classes, a group of students can experience a deteriorated performance from delayed corrective feedback, and another group can suffer immediate deterioration in their learning performance following negative feedback. The implementation of the Phased Assessments and Looped Feedback (PALF) model has made a demonstrable contribution to improving students' learning outcomes when used to teach about 120 students undertaking the first-year cornerstone engineering subjects. This paper demonstrates how the PALF model has improved students' grades between two consecutively phased tasks. Furthermore, university administered student feedback on subjects' (SFS) surveys and specific questionnaire methods were conducted and critically reviewed to evaluate students' reflection on the PALF model, which demonstrates its immediate positive impact on students' experience with the quality of feedback received. The SFS scoring trends are seen elevating following the application of the new model and sustained its level over several years of implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the associations between math-gender stereotypes and two dimensions of student engagement – class engagement and disengagement – among Russian engineering students. The data collected in three Russian universities (n = 2,074) were utilised. Structural equation modelling was employed to test hypotheses about relationships between key variables and their variations for male and female subsamples. We revealed that the students' attribution of math-gender stereotypes to faculty slightly decreased class engagement and increased disengagement for both male and female students. Therefore, we hypothesise that male students can be more overconfident about their future performance in exams on math-related subjects because of a better reputation in the eyes of instructors, which can result in less engagement and, as a consequence, lower academic outcomes. These findings demonstrate the high importance of faculty in encouraging engineering student engagement and providing a bias-free learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research shows, on a wide dataset of students, that evaluation methods to promote active learning improve students' academic success and performance. On a database of 4622 engineering and design students, we demonstrate that this result holds when correcting the selection bias—more engaged students opt for active learning. The intriguing result is that the percentage of students that opt for active learning decreases along time. The discussion points to the role of faculty as crucial to decrease the resistance of students to active learning. The general methodological approach in this paper may be useful to assess the performance of any change in a subject's evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Web 2.0 facilitated collaborative design among undergraduate engineering students. The study used the actor–network theory as a methodological and analytical framework to study the role of Web 2.0 technology in the collaborative design process. Participants were drawn from fourth-year engineering students at a university of technology in Zimbabwe. Data were constituted by using a questionnaire, comprising closed and open-ended questions, semi-structured interview schedules, observation schedules, and non-participant observation of online activities by student designers. The findings of the study show that Web 2.0 technology stirred the collaborative design process by stimulating unpredictable actions, thus actively contributing to shaping the emerging collaborative design network. The study concludes that Web 2.0 technologies should not be viewed as simple tools for communication, as described in some literature but as non-human actors which can mediate the collaborative design process and shape the way it is constitued and carryed out in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to deal with the skills for sustainable development in engineering courses. The main objective is to identify which competences should be developed in these courses to contribute to the resolution of conflicts related to sustainability, as well as the means used by universities for their development. Design/methodology/approach: The research is divided into two strands: a theoretical and an empirical one. Concerning the theoretical part, the webibliomining method was adopted, to select the articles that were relevant to the theme, and 22 works were selected. Regarding the empirical study, structured questionnaires were applied to 30 specialists in the field, aiming at validating the competencies found in the literature. Findings: In the literature, eight main competencies required to the engineering professional, related to sustainability, were found. The empirical study showed that some competences are considered more relevant than others by the interviewees. Practical implications: The competencies verified in the present study and the relative relevance between them found in the empirical study can contribute to the engineering courses that wish to develop the sustainable behavior of the engineers in their professional or daily life. Originality/value: The originality of the work consists in presenting to engineering students and teachers as well as professionals of the market and the government the competencies that can contribute to the formation of an engineer capable of bringing adequate solutions to the conflicts of sustainability in the twenty-first century. This paper also presents learning teaching methodologies indicated for this purpose. No other works were found with these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a design-based research project undertaken to test and implement an interest-based engineering challenges framework for pre-college students. This work is motivated by the need for innovative engineering education practices in pre-college settings, and making engineering more inclusive for people from diverse backgrounds. The design-based research methodology can be challenging to implement as it comprises of multiple, cyclical research activities that provide challenges in documenting and communicating the larger study's progress. This paper presents findings from this continuously evolving study, and also the design and implementation of this design-based research at roughly the halfway point for a four-year study. Each of the consequent versions scaffold to answer the broader research questions of the study pertaining to: engineering appealing to students' personal interests, empowering underrepresented groups to find meaningful connections to engineering, leading more authentic engagement in engineering and design practices, and improving students' attitudes and perception of engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although engineering educational endeavours are often described with regard to how well they prepare students to meet national or global engineering concerns, the purpose of this paper is to show how those efforts can also serve the larger educational goals of the educators themselves as they develop learning experiences for their students. This paper describes the reflections of four engineering educators who used a research-based 'Pedagogy of Larger Concerns' (PLC) as a conceptual lens for examining important aspects of their courses. A PLC is a set of teaching conceptions that was identified in a study exploring the thinking of outstanding professors in order to improve our understanding of the basis of their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction to Engineering is the first engineering course American University in Cairo students take upon admission to the engineering program. It is required of students in all disciplines of engineering. It is a one-credit-hour course that covers topics including history of engineering, engineering fields of specializations, the engineering profession, engineering communications, engineering ethics, and societal obligations. Community-based learning (CBL) was introduced into the course via the required course project. The project was to design toys for children at a school in a disadvantaged squatter community in Old Cairo, Egypt, where infrastructure is poor and education and social mobility can be very limited. The project was carried out in partnership with a non-governmental organization based in Old Cairo. This paper shows how the introductory engineering course was redesigned to integrate CBL while meeting the stated ABET course outcomes. Included are detailed instructions on the tools and structure of the project to provide an example for others wishing to adapt some of these tools to other courses. The paper presents the outcome assessments and survey results to evaluate the project’s success at meeting the stated outcomes and includes a discussion on the benefits to the students and the community partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the role of grit – defined as both perseverance and passion for long-term goals – on human performance has been conducted for the past decade. It has been suggested that this non-cognitive factor is a better predictor of students' retention than traditional academic measures. These findings hold relevance for engineering education research but studies on this area are still scarce. This paper provides a systematic review of the current state of research on grit and its correlates in engineering higher education research. Publications were identified using three types of databases specific to engineering education; a final set of 31 relevant records was analysed by type of population, methods, research topics and main results. Most of the reviewed studies implemented quantitative methodologies to assess grit and also used one of the two versions of Duckworth's Grit scale. Key findings are that in engineering education research, both the conceptualisation of grit and research reporting procedures have been inconsistent. Such inconsistency hinders interpretation of the impact of grit in engineering education. In response, new research avenues and best practices for reporting are proffered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Career Academics’ are principally research-led, entering academia with limited or no industrial or practical experience. UK Higher Education Institutions welcome them for their potential to attain research grant funding and publish world-leading journal papers, ultimately enhancing institutional reputation. This polemical paper problematises the Career Academic around three areas: their institutional appeal; their impact on the student experience, team dynamics and broader academic functions; and current strategic policy to employ them. We also argue that recent UK Government teaching-focused initiatives will not address needs to employ practical academics, or ‘Pracademics’ in predominantly vocational Construction and Engineering Education. We generate questions for policy-makers, institutions and those implementing strategy. We argue that research is key, but partial rebalancing will achieve a diverse academic skill base to achieve contextualised construction and engineering education. In wider European contexts, the paper resonates with issues of academic ‘drift’ and provides reflection for others on the UK context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper questions if engineering educators are producing engineers that are accelerating humanity along an unsustainable path. Even though technology and engineering are important drivers in trying to move humanity towards an environmentally sustainable paradigm, the paper suggests that maybe the most important levers and challenges lie in the economic and social domains. Short case studies of energy efficiency, the experience of the industrialist Ray Anderson and the authors own reflection of teaching chemical engineering students are used to highlight this. Engineering/technological innovation may not be enough and is often counteracted by the rebound effect and the current dominant neoclassical economic paradigm. The paper discusses what engineering educators can do to produce sustainability informed engineers who are better able to engage with the economic and social dimensions of sustainability. Some suggestions for engaging engineering students with the economic and social dimensions of environmental sustainability are provided. Engineers must somehow find ways, not just to influence technological levers (which are very important) but also to influence economic and social levers so that changes in economic and social behaviours can complement and facilitate technological change in moving humanity to an environmentally sustainable paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to identify the competencies required to achieve success in the transition from higher education to the labour market based on the perceptions of employers. This paper analyses the assessments made by a group of engineering company employers. An item-battery of 20 competencies was grouped into 3 dimensions by using factor analysis. Subsequently, respondents’ scores were also clustered into three groups and characterised through contingency tables. The competencies demanded by employers were grouped into business and finance, problem-solving and strategic planning. Significant differences were found between responses from employers working in medium and small companies, who placed more importance on competencies related to problem-solving and strategic planning, and employers in big companies, who were more concerned about the difficulties of finding well-trained graduates. The findings from this paper have important implications for research in the areas of higher education and organisations that usually employ graduate engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In higher education, engineering students have to be prepared for their future jobs, with knowledge but also with several soft skills, among them creativity. In this paper, we present a study carried on with 128 engineering undergraduate students on their understanding of mathematical creativity. The students were in the first year of different engineering first degrees in a north-eastern Portuguese university and we analysed the content of their texts for the question 'What do you understand by mathematical creativity?'. Data collection was done in the first semester of the academic years 2014/2015 and 2016/2017 in a Linear Algebra course. The results showed that 'problem solving' category had the majority of the references in 2014/2015, but not in the academic year 2016/2017 were 'involving mathematics' category had the majority. This exploratory study pointed out for 'problem solving' and 'involving mathematics' categories and gave us hints for teaching mathematics courses in engineering degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been increasing interest within the engineering education research community to prepare engineering students to address wicked problems (WPs) such as climate change, resource scarcity and violent conflict. Previous research suggests that engineering students are able to address WPs if they are given adequate support, but there is a lack of research on what kinds of support are needed. This paper aims to reduce this gap by reporting on students' performance in, and approaches to, addressing WPs when different scaffolding strategies were used in different parts of a rubric-based intervention. The intervention aimed to provide undergraduate engineering students with an understanding of the nature of WPs and with a structured way of addressing them. For each part of the intervention, we discuss affordances for learning provided by the different scaffolding strategies. The results suggest that strong cognitive scaffolding can support students' understanding of the nature of WPs and students' performance in written responses to WPs, but possibly also limits deep engagement with WPs and transfer of learning to other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the current state of the Ukrainian system of engineering education indicates the prevalence of traditional teaching-learning approaches in contrast to the modern needs of the labour market. Many universities across the world use the problem/project-based learning (PBL) which is an effective approach for the development of design and management skills of engineering students. The paper describes a detailed structure of a PBL course in project management and practical experience related to its implementation in an engineering degree programme at Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy. Also, the results of surveys carried out in order to study the students’ generic competences’ development and perception of the PBL process are presented. The results show that students understand the diversity of PBL aspects and the influence of the PBL approach on their professional characteristics such as teamwork, ability of self-directed learning, communication and problem-solving skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This aim of this paper is to provide recommendations for developing sports engineering education research (SEER) both at the individual and community levels. The emergence of this field can be positively informed by reflection on similar developments in other fields, particularly engineering education and health science education research. The large traditional engineering disciplines, including chemical, electrical and computer, and mechanical, have well-developed communities and publication venues for educational research. Health professions, including kinesiology, rehabilitation, nursing, and medicine, have allied with sports engineering to develop educational research that can inform methods and provide opportunities for dissemination. As an interdisciplinary field, it is also critical to draw on the growing body of interprofessional education research. The rich literature relating to discipline-based educational research (DBER) and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) can support individuals moving into this field, and observations by communities in other disciplines can provide guideposts for sports engineering. There are well-established processes and methodologies that can be adapted from other discipline-based educational research fields. As stand-alone sports engineering education programs are relatively rare and young, there is an opportunity available to create a culture that values research on education in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many interventions have been proposed to improve the retention and graduation rates of engineering students. One such intervention is to use study groups for first-year college students; such groups provide a structured environment in which the students can learn course material from each other outside of class and can provide the students with a sense of community. In this paper, we report on the impacts fostered by study groups in first-year mathematics courses on the odds of retaining and graduating engineering students. Students who participated in the study groups are compared to students of similar academic preparation who did not participate in such groups. It is found that student participation in study groups is significantly associated with the higher odds of being retained in engineering studies through the first 3 years of college. The results reported here are not as certain for the effect of study group participation on 5-year graduation odds for engineering students and some possible reasons for this are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes lab work for learning fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) in mechatronic systems. These skills are important for engineering education because FDD is a key capability of competitive processes and products. The intended outcome of the lab work is that students become aware of the importance of faulty conditions and learn to design FDD strategies for a real system. To this end, the paper proposes a lab project where students are requested to develop a discrete event dynamic system (DEDS) diagnosis to cope with two faulty conditions in an autonomous mobile robot task. A sample solution is discussed for LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots with LabVIEW. This innovative practice is relevant to higher education engineering courses related to mechatronics, robotics, or DEDS. Results are also given of the application of this strategy as part of a postgraduate course on fault-tolerant mechatronic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial field trip in the introduction to engineering has been integrated into the engineering education program at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, Vietnam in 2010. The industrial field trip was organized in the early weeks of the engineering education course. Participating in an industrial field trip is a formal requirement of an engineering education program. After each course, the experience in organizing field trips is reflected and modified continuously to increase the effectiveness in the introduction to engineering for students. A process of organizing the industrial field trips has been developed to increase the effectiveness of education, which includes three main stages: (1) classroom activities to prepare for the field trip, (2) implementation of the field trip, and (3) reflections on the field trip experience. Results showed that the industrial field trips enhance the emotions of students about an engineering education field. This paper is a descriptive research, in which a case study is used to describe the experience of implementing the industrial field trips at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of research (FoR) that an academic participates in is both a manifestation of, and a contributor to the development of their identity. When an academic changes that FoR the question then arises as to how they reconcile this change with their identity. This paper uses the identity-trajectory framework to analyse the discourse of 19 engineering academics in relation to their educational research. The findings reveal insights into the identity changes experienced in the transition from typical engineering academic to engineering education researcher. Participants' responses illustrate how various aspects of their research activities contribute to the development of the networking and intellectual strands of their academic identity as engineering education researchers, and the effect of their university environment on this development. Conference participation was found to be an important contributor to progression of the intellectual and networking strands of identity-trajectory for researchers at all stages of development, although for different reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Conceptual change is a process in which an individual's understanding and the basis of this understanding change over time. Vosniadou's framework theory explains conceptual change in terms of how students learn to relate the observable and unobservable in everyday phenomena. As a result, courses that relate physical phenomena to complex abstractions – such as Mechanics of Materials – are useful spaces for exploring conceptual change. Purpose: This paper leverages Vosniadou's framework theory of conceptual change to explore students' reasoning and to identify trends about their understanding of fundamental concepts of mechanics of materials. Design/Method: This research is based on the qualitative analysis of semi‐structured interviews with ninety engineering undergraduate students enrolled in a Mechanics of Materials course. Interviews were qualitatively analyzed to capture students' understanding of mechanics of materials concepts under different loading scenarios. Results: Our results found two common persistent beliefs in student reasoning in both the axial and bending load cases: that shear and normal stress depend on (a) the direction and (b) the location of an applied load. We propose that students' “nonscientific” beliefs are part of an intermediate, synthetic model of conceptual understanding created as students assimilate their presuppositions of mechanics of materials with newly acquired information based on the scientific concepts. Conclusions: Students form naïve conceptual beliefs based on their experiences with loading scenarios that impede their abilities to more effectively assimilate new concepts into their current framework theories. A better understanding of student reasoning and what influences it can inform instructional techniques to help students develop science‐based reasoning in mechanics of materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce is central to economic growth and development. To build such a workforce, there is need to promote STEM disciplines. This paper describes the use of a portable electrical engineering outreach toolkit that targets primary and secondary students. The Outreach Toolkit contains 1) a Van De Graff Generator, 2) Tesla Coil, 3) Joule Thief and 4) a Combinatorial Logic Designer Board. Based on the electrical engineering theory and principles as required by the primary and secondary school curricula, live demonstrations are to be conducted using these devices. Complemented with the Toolkit, there are user manuals and a suite of videos that describe various experiments, safety precautions and maintenance requirements. For evaluating the efficacy of the toolkit, a group of 1 primary and 1 secondary schools from the South Eastern Education District of Trinidad and Tobago was based, and their students and teachers were invited to participate a demonstration of the toolkit. Results showed that majority of the secondary school students (90%) indicated that the use of the toolkit could increase their interests in studying science. Some 95% of students indicated that the toolkit made learning science more fun and motivational, and would like to have the device equipped at their school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem-based learning (PBL) has proven to be highly effective for educating students in an active and self-motivated manner in various disciplines. Student projects carried out following PBL principles are very dynamic and carry a high level of uncertainty, both conditions under which agile project management approaches are assumed to be highly supportive. The paper describes an empirical case study carried out at Aalborg University Copenhagen involving students from two different semesters of a Bachelor of Science programme. While executing the study, compelling examples of how PBL and the agile project management method Kanban blend could be identified. A final survey reveals that applying Kanban produces noticeable improvements with respect to creating, assigning and coordinating project tasks. Other improvements were found in group communication, knowledge about the work progress with regards to both the individual and the collective and the students’ way of continuously improving their own teamwork. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the twenty-first century, meeting our technological challenges demands educational excellence, a skilled populace that is ready for the critical challenges society faces. There is widespread consensus, however, that education systems are failing to adequately prepare all students with the essential twenty-first century knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in life, career, and citizenship. The purpose of this paper is to understand how twenty-first century knowledge and skills can be appropriately embedded in engineering education finalised to innovative product development by using additive manufacturing (AM). The study designs a learning model by which to achieve effective AM education to address the requirements of twenty-first century and to offer students the occasion to experiment with STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) concepts. The study is conducted using the quality function deployment (QFD) methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lean and Green manufacturing processes aim at achieving lower material and labour costs, while reducing impacts on the environment, and promoting sustainability as a whole. This paper reports on a pilot experiment with higher education and engineering students, exploring the full potential of a collaborative approach on courses integrating the Portuguese Polytechnic of Castelo Branco engineering studies curricula, while simultaneously improving their proficiency in English. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become a key area of curricular innovation since it is known for improving both language and content teacher and student motivation. In this context, instructional design for CLIL entailed tandem work of content (engineering) and language (English) teacher to design learning sequences and strategies. This allowed students to improve not only their language skills in English but also their knowledge in the specific engineering domain content on green and lean manufacturing processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at presenting the experience of the Power Conversion project in teaching students to design a proof-of-principle contactless energy transfer system for the charging of electrical vehicles. The Power Conversion is a second-year electrical engineering (EE) project in which students are to gather and apply EE knowledge to design and test a system. This system is to work with power level and operates independent from an electricity grid. The instructional method used in this project is design-based learning (DBL). As an educational approach, DBL is to support students to gather and apply knowledge inopen-endedassignments. The set-up of the project has gone through different modifications and iterations in three consecutive years regarding the organisation and supervision of the students. We have analysed the students’ design products in the past three academic years in order to evaluate whether the project set-up and supervision have influenced students’ designs. Results indicate that theopen-endedcharacter of the project has a positive influence on the designs especially regarding the criteria on efficiency, Maximum Power Point Tracking algorithm and power tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we study epistemological transitions across an intended engineering curriculum and recommend strategies to assist students in attaining the increasingly complex concepts and insights that are necessary for transition to advanced levels of study. We draw on Legitimation Code Theory [Maton, Karl. 2014,Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education. Abingdon: Routledge], in particular the dimensions of sematic gravity and semantic density, to explain these transitions. Data for the study was obtained from a curriculum renewal project that reveals how engineers understand engineering knowledge. We find an interdependent relationship between semantic gravity and semantic density in the intended engineering curriculum. The complexity of the context and the problems that arise from it pose strong cognitive challenges. The semantic gravity wave rises and falls across the engineering curriculum s, enabling both abstraction and a focus on ‘real world’ problems in specialised knowledge fields. Control of the semantic gravity wave is key to the provision of ‘epistemological access’ [Morrow, Wally, ed. (2003) 2009.Bounds of Democracy: Epistemological Access in Higher Education. Reprint, Pretoria: HSRC Press] to engineering knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the mismatch between the educational attainment of a graduate with a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree and the industry needs in China. A competency list for MEng graduates from the perspective of industry needs was constructed. And a survey was conducted among MEng graduate students, alumni, and employers to assess the listed items. The analysis of the survey data yielded five competencies. Mismatches were found for all five factors. Each discrepancy is discussed in detail in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Current engineering education challenges require approaches that promote scientific, technical, design and complementary skills while fostering autonomy, innovation and responsibility. The European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) (EPS@ISEP) is a one semester project-based learning programme (30 European Credit Transfer Units (ECTU)) for engineering students from diverse scientific backgrounds and nationalities that intends to address these goals. The students, organised in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, are challenged to solve real multidisciplinary problems during one semester. The EPS package, although on project development (20 ECTU), includes a series of complementary seminars aimed at fostering soft, project-related and engineering transversal skills (10 ECTU). Hence, the students enrolled in this programme improve their transversal skills and learn, together and with the team of supervisors, subjects distinct from their core training. This paper presents the structure, implementation and results of the EPS@ISEP that was created in 2011 to apply the best engineering practices and promote internationalisation and engineering education innovation at ISEP. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on a project in which students designed, constructed and tested a model of an existing early warning system with simulation of debris flow in a context of a landslide. Students also assessed rural community members’ knowledge of this system and subsequently taught them to estimate the time needed for evacuation of the community in the event of a landslide. Participants were four undergraduate students in a civil engineering programme at a university in Thailand, as well as nine community members and three external evaluators. Results illustrate project and problem-based, experiential learning and highlight the real-world applications and development of knowledge and of hard and soft skills. The discussion raises issues of scalability and feasibility for implementation of these types of projects in large undergraduate engineering classes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Engineering design is known as an answer to an ill-defined problem. As any answer to an ill-defined problem, it can never be completely right or absolutely wrong. The methods that universities use to teach engineering design, as a consequence of this, suffer from the same fate. However, the accumulated experience with the ‘chalk and talk’ teaching tradition has led to a reality in which the employers of fresh graduates are not happy with the engineers they are getting. Part of their complaints are related with the inability of recently graduate engineers to work in problems where the boundaries are not well defined, are interdisciplinary, require the use of effective communication and integrate non-technical issues. These skills are mostly absent from traditional engineering curricula. This paper demonstrates the implementation of engineering design perspectives enhancing some of the aforementioned skills in a traditional mechanical engineering curriculum. It emphasises in particular a design project that is tackled in a sequence of conventional courses with a focus that depends on the course objectives and disciplinary domain. This transdisciplinary design project conveys the idea (and effectively implements it concurrently) that design is multidisciplinary. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a virtual lab for the contents of an Engineering project, for designing an agro-industrial building, which is also useful for a range of different transversal courses in Engineering sciences. The aims of this tool are to analyse the most important contents of a project-document (calculation, regulations, drawings and budgets), as well as their relationship with the activities which make up the work and the schedule. The design criteria we considered were: its online applications and their compatibility with Moodle; the inclusion of different learning approaches, such as exploratory learning and inquiry-based learning; its interactivity, and the use of multimedia elements for visualisation and direct analysis on material common to Engineering subjects. The students’ perceptions of the improvements brought by the virtual lab were analysed statistically through a series of questions over two academic years. The results of the questionnaires suggested that most of those who had used the e-learning tool valued positively its overall suitability for reaching the objectives in their subject as well as the way it improved the working methodology. The practical knowledge acquired by the students was also highly valued. In addition, the lack of constraints commonly related to field trips (expenses, time and complexity) illustrates the utility of self-access learning tools in key transversal disciplines such as Engineering projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we studied the transferring process of five apprentice engineering students concerning the place value concept in a telecommunication workplace setting. In this setting, a physical material, a telecommunication closet (TC), appearing as a concrete representation of the ten-numeration system, supported the process of generating composite units in a sequential way. The data were generated by conducting an interview with each student based on two tasks. In the first task, students were asked to locate the place of a particular wire pair on the telecommunication closet representation (TC representation). In the second task, students were asked to determine the range of values that generate this composite unit. Our theoretical and analytical framework is guided by the three levels of students' generalization activity by Radford () and the work on developmental transfer by Engeström (). By identifying shifts in the students' activity (from factual to contextual and from contextual to symbolic), we recognized three transferring cases: the immediate transfer case, the developmental transfer case, and the nondevelopmental transfer case. By comparing and contrasting the different cases, we identified four factors that seem to facilitate or constrain the transfer development. These are the use of metaphors, the development of problem solving strategies, the context dependency, and the students' motivation. In conclusion, we discuss the educational implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]