The primary goal of this paper is to present the theoretical basis and application of two types of cognitive maps, concept map and mind map, and explain how they can be used by educational researchers in engineering design research. Cognitive mapping techniques can be useful to researchers as they study students' problem solving strategies…

The main purpose of this study was to determine significant positive effects among the use of three different types of drafting models, and to identify whether any differences exist towards promotion of spatial visualization ability for students in Industrial Technology and Technology Education courses. In particular, the study compared the use of…

The National Science Foundation's Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program (NSF, 2012) supports partnerships between K-12 school districts and institutions of higher education (IHEs) and has been funding projects to improve STEM education in K-12 since 2002. As of 2011, a total of 178 MSP projects have received support as part of a STEM…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the use of solid modeling software increases participants' success in solving a specified technical problem and how visualization affects their ability to solve a technical problem. Specifically, the study sought to determine if (a) students' visualization skills affect their problem…

The Council on Technology Teacher Education (CTTE)'s 2011 yearbook is its sixtieth, making the series one of the longest-lived of its kind in the US. The yearbook series was founded in part to demonstrate the intellectual maturity of the field; today professionals in the field affirm its "uninterrupted tradition of scholarly excellence and…

Although the term "technology" means different things to different people, most would generally agree that it is about "stuff." For some it may be more complex than this, and for others it may simply involve using or studying high-tech gadgetry, such as computers and iPhones. Understanding the interdependence between design and culture is a…

In order to effectively teach engineering, technology teachers need to be taught engineering content, concepts, and related pedagogy. Some researchers posit that technology education programs may not have enough content to prepare technology teachers to teach engineering design. Certain technology teacher education programs have responded by…

The disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have experienced problems in producing adequate numbers of graduates to meet workforce needs in these fields. Although entrance into the STEM fields has grown, this growth is not keeping pace with the overall needs of the labor market. Better understanding of the important…

This study investigated the mental representations of student and professional engineers while they solved an engineering design problem. The intent was to gain a deeper insight into the differences that exist in the cognitive processes of engineering students and professional engineers as they use mental representations (i.e., propositions,…

It is no coincidence that many of the "Grand Challenges for Engineering" (National Academy of Engineering, 2007-2010)--such as carbon sequestration--address environmental problems that were precipitated by human inventiveness and engineering achievements. Although people recognize their dependence upon environmental processes to provide essential…

The purpose of this study was to amass as comprehensive a collection of dissertations and theses in technology and engineering education as possible, and to conduct a modified meta-analysis of this body of research. The current study was limited to dissertations and theses completed between 2000 and 2009 that were identified using the ProQuest…

Beginning in 1998, the editors of "Technology and Children" ("T&C") have included 72 different children's books in a regular feature called "Books to Briefs." These columns are offered to teachers as a means of integrating design and technology activities into elementary-school curricula via children's literature. The purpose of this study was to…

In 2006, the authors began a project to understand what happens in middle school technology education classrooms in order to document the goals that technology education teachers pursue, the instructional strategies they use to teach children to meet these outcomes, the measures they use to assess achievement of these goals, and the learning…

Advanced three-dimensional virtual environment technology, similar to that used by the film and computer games industry, can allow educational developers to rapidly create realistic online vir-tual environments. This technology has been used to generate a range of interactive Virtual Real-ity (VR) learning environments across a spectrum of…

Every year, the Joint Admission Board (JAB) is tasked to determine those students who are expected to join various Kenyan public universities under the government sponsorship scheme. This exercise is usually extensive because of the large number of qualified students compared to the very limited number of slots at various institutions and the…