Human-computer interaction (HCI) design generally involves collaboration from professionals in different disciplines. Trained in different design education systems, these professionals can have different conceptual understandings about design. Recognizing and identifying these differences are key issues for establishing shared design practices…

Inasmuch as design is a central activity in K-12 engineering education, understanding the students' motivation during engaging in engineering design activities will help educators to develop and evaluate strategies for engineering design challenges, and improve curriculum. The objective of this study is to better understand the relationship…

Engineers commonly use rules, theories and models that lack scientific justification. Examples include rules of thumb based on experience, but also models based on obsolete science or folk theories. Centrifugal forces, heat and cold as substances, and sucking vacuum all belong to the latter group. These models contradict scientific knowledge, but…

Many scholars claimed the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is beneficial to the national economy and teachers and institutes have been working to develop integrated education programs. This study examined a project-based learning (PjBL) activity that integrated STEM using survey and interview…

Design and problem-solving is a key learning focus in technology education and remains a distinguishing factor that separates it from other subject areas. This research investigated how two expert designers considered experiences with hard materials contributed to their learning design and problem-solving with these materials. The research project…

The design of this study was a multiple case study conducted to examine the knowledge, pedagogical principles, and challenges involved in providing engineering-oriented professional development for teachers at the secondary school level. A set of criteria was used to identify five representative projects for analysis in the US. A variety of tools…

An investigation of the epistemological beliefs of apprentices in the commercial engineering sector is of interest for vocational training, both from the point of view of optimising vocational didactic processes as well as in terms of communicating suitable knowledge based beliefs about principles and performance in the commercial engineering…

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…

Nineteen informants (n = 19) were asked to study and comment two computer animations of the Otto combustion engine. One animation was non-interactive and realistic in the sense of depicting a physical engine. The other animation was more idealised, interactive and synchronised with a dynamic PV-graph. The informants represented practical and…

The purpose of this study is to verify whether pupils (15-16 years old) who have received technology education on a systemic approach of industrial systems, are better than other pupils (of the same age but from other academic domains such as literary ones or ones that are economics-based) at solving physical science problems which involve…

In 2007, the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of the Delft University of Technology introduced a new bachelor program. Based on theories of learning and instruction three design principles were used to develop an approach that aims to make it easier for students to bridge the gap between theoretical design engineering courses and practical…

Since technology education is, compared to subjects such as mathematics and science, still a fairly new subject both nationally and internationally, it does not have an established subject philosophy. In the absence of an established subject philosophy for technology education, one can draw on other disciplines in the field, such as engineering…

With the rapid advances in civilization, technological breakthroughs, and a globally growing workforce, there is a strong need for engineers capable of working in the 21st century environment (Galloway, "The 21st century engineer: A proposal for engineering education reform." ASCE, Washington DC 2008). To help increase the quality and quantity of…

In recent years, bio-inspired approach to design has gained considerable interest between designers, engineers and end-users. However, there are difficulties in introducing bio-inspiration concepts in the university curriculum in that they involve multi-disciplinary work, which can only possibly be successfully delivered by a team with integrated…

The investigation reported here dealt with the study of motivation for creativity. The goals were to assess motivation for creativity in architectural design and engineering design students based on the Cognitive Orientation theory which defines motivation as a function of a set of belief types, themes, and groupings identified as relevant for the…