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This article presents the findings of an exploratory investigation involving the direct assessment of the quality of abstract thinking of two cohorts of South African university entrants who had very good school leaving qualifications. The investigation was prompted by the observation of difficulties these students seemed to have had in a first year engineering course with regard to conceptualization and problem solving that called for abstract thinking. The investigation was based on neo-Piagetian principles and the benchmarked findings indicated an alarming level of concrete thinking in tasks that called for abstract thinking. The article argues that this is a manifestation of a problematic secondary education system and that quality of thinking has received inadequate research attention as a potentially significant factor influencing student retention and academic performance in the country. It argues further that such research should include a re-evaluation of current first year educational strategies with regard to the development of the quality of student thinking and that, to support this, additional research is needed to develop appropriate instruments for providing objective measures of the quality of student thinking. Based on the experience gained in the study, recommendations are made about directions such research could take. (Contains 3 figures and 7 tables.)

This article reports the findings of an inductive study on the learning behaviours and language difficulties of a small group of English additional-language students entering a school of chemical and metallurgical engineering in South Africa. Students were interviewed in their home language. While they appeared to have had a reasonable grounding in the basics of effective studying and learning, a range of problematic features were also evident. These included rote learning, a dualistic conception of knowledge, and a problematic degree of dependence on teachers, texts and studying past examination papers. The interlinked nature of these features and the way they seem to derive from educational background suggest that the design of interventions should give particular attention to the "learning practices" of students and be based on developing these practices as a whole rather than the more traditional approach of providing "skills courses". (Contains 2 tables.)

The CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) syllabus is the most detailed statement on the goals of engineering education currently found in the literature. This paper presents an in-depth validation exercise of the CDIO syllabus using the taxonomy of engineering competencies as a validating instrument. The study explains the attributes that make the taxonomy well suited for this purpose. The findings of the validation exercise give strong endorsement of the rationale of the syllabus and, with some minor qualifications, of its claim to articulate the goals of engineering education in a comprehensive way. The qualifications stem from the differences in the organising principles of the two statements. The study shows that the syllabus should give more attention to some production engineering contexts and makes a number of recommendations about how the syllabus could be further strengthened. (Contains 3 tables.)

The case study presented in this paper was motivated by a teacher's desire to understand better the conceptual difficulties his students were experiencing with the topic of the Mohr Circle in a materials engineering course. To gain such an understanding, a phenomenographic study was undertaken based on student interviews. The findings of the study identified four categories of qualitatively different conceptions about the Mohr Circle that were evident among the students. These, together with a number of subcategories, provided a conceptual structure for modifying the way the course was taught and also highlighted particular aspects of the topic that required pedagogical attention. Although the study derives from a specific group of students and relates to a specific context, the insights reported in the paper may have relevance to other contexts and groupings of students. In particular, it demonstrates the utility of phenomenography as a useful methodology in research-led engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an example of engineering educational research as a means of improving the effectiveness of teaching through the identification of student challenges and the subsequent creation of educational strategies to mediate gaps and enhance student mastery of an engineering topic. Its specific focus is student assessment error analysis, an under-researched field in engineering education. The context of the study was a cohort of 133 students taking a reactor design module in a chemical engineering degree programme. The study demonstrates how insights gained from a stringent data analysis of student test errors combined with teaching reflections can inform pedagogical redesign of a course. It discusses the utility of the research methodology used and how it can be deployed as a strategy in research-led engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]