The purpose of the research reported here was to determine the impact learning the engineering design process (EDP) would have on the critical thinking skills of high school physics students. An EDP unit was conducted with 5 classes of high school physics students in grades 10-12 over 1 month. The EDP unit's curriculum allowed for the gradual release of responsibility as students became more familiar with the EDP and more consistent in using it. The six steps used in this EDP unit were Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Test, and Improve. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal was given as a pre- and post-test to measure the growth in critical thinking skills. By measured standards, qualitative analysis and observation, students showed an increase in critical thinking skills and in confidence to use them.

The 'flattening of the world', using Thomas Friedman's phraseology, is driving corporations to increasingly use collaborative engineering processes and global teams to operate on a global scale. Globalization of the traditional university engineering curriculum is necessary to help students prepare to work in a global environment. More scalable and economically sustainable program types are needed to enable the majority of students to obtain a globalized education. The purpose of this research was to determine how effectively a global team- and project-based computer aided engineering course provided learning opportunities that enabled students to develop elements of global competence in comparison to existing engineering study abroad programs. To accomplish this, research was necessary to identify, aggregate, and validate a comprehensive set of global competencies for engineering students. From a review of the literature and subsequent analysis, a set of twenty-three global competencies with an associated conceptual model was developed to group the competencies by contextual topics. Two surveys were then developed and distributed separately to academic and industry professionals, each of which groups largely confirmed that it was important for engineering students to develop these global competencies. Next, the traditional ME 471 class was restructured into a Global ME 471 course. A pilot program was conducted from which lessons learned were incorporated into the global course. Selected global competencies were included as new learning outcomes. Course learning materials, labs, and lectures were also updated to reflect the new course emphasis. A survey was developed to be sent to BYU engineering study abroad students and the Global ME 471 course during 2010. A statistical analysis of responses was used to identify significant differences between the response groups. In addition to the global competencies which were identified and validated, global collaborative project-based courses such as Global ME 471 were shown to be effective in enabling students to learn and develop selected global competencies. Study abroad programs and the Global ME 471 course were seen both to be complementary in their emphasis and supportive of global engineering. In addition, global collaborative project-based courses were shown to play an important part of a globalized engineering curriculum.

The significance of teaching the basics of engineering education in middle- and high-schools is generally acknowledged by policy makers, teachers and researchers in the U.S.A. as well as a number of developed and developing countries. Nevertheless, engineering topics are rarely covered by precollege curriculums. A key contributing factor is that engineering hinges on the usage of technology to expose learners to fundamental concepts otherwise difficult to demonstrate. For example, learning the concepts of systems' design, optimization, and trade-offs can be a challenging task when teachers and students limited access to tools to practice their engineering knowledge. Thus, a deficiency of operational learning technologies for diverse precollege environments affects the availability of engineering learning experiences. The aim of this dissertation is to unveil the relationships between influential factors for the advancement of precollege engineering education. We proposed a framework for the development of curriculum and technology derived from analyzing design issues from the perspective of multiple entities encompassing a broad of stage holders including students, teachers and technology developers. Several influential factors are considered including human-computer interaction issues, the problem of a digitally divided population and the lack of engineering curriculum that reconciles precollege engineering education with state and national educational standards. The findings of this dissertation are based on quantitative and qualitative re- search performed during a four year span working with five local schools in the Tucson Unified School District.

<p>Although ABET has outlined educational outcomes to help prepare students with the necessary competencies to succeed in professional engineering practice, it is unclear how confident students are in their professional engineering skills. <i>Competency</i> refers to the<i>“generic, integrated and internalized capability to deliver sustainable effective performance in a certain professional domain, job, role, organizational context, and task situation.” </i>Understanding their competency provides students with a bridge to connect their academic experiences with their ability to perform their workplace duties. To help students assess their competency, I developed the Self-efficacy Inventory for Professional Engineering Competency (SEIPEC), an inventory that aims to measure engineering students’ self-efficacy for professional engineering competencies. Unlike other inventories in engineering that measure the academic experience or other self-efficacy inventories that do not focus on the engineering population, this career assessment is designed for college-level engineering students to evaluate their subjective readiness for successful performance in the workplace. </p> <p>SEIPEC is a tool for students to self-assess their professional competencies, aiming to empower students to become reflective about their learning and increase awareness of workplace competencies. SEIPEC was developed based on the American Association of Engineering Societies’ Engineering Competency Model (ECM). The ECM identifies factors that contribute to self-efficacy for professional engineering competency. ECM was developed using the Delphi method and encompasses a comprehensive list of competency statements that were approved by industry leaders and engineering educators to encapsulate the competencies needed for a professional engineer.</p> <p>The data include 434 complete responses from bachelor’s and master’s students at a Midwest research-intensive university. The sample represents 13 engineering disciplines, such as electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering, and includes 282 male and 146 female students, 48 first-generation students, and 63 international students. After the exploratory factor analysis and the confirmatory factor analysis, a four-factor model with 20 competency statements was validated as the measurement for self-efficacy for professional engineering competency. The four factors that contribute to the self-efficacy of professional engineering competency include (a) sustainability and societal impact, (b) health and safety, (c) application of tools and technologies, and (d) engineering economics. </p> <p>The SEIPEC tool has the potential to empower engineering students to reflect upon and connect their academic experience with professional competencies. SEIPEC would provide students with a method to self-evaluate their skills in addition to other assessment methods such as course grades and traditional engineering exams. <a>The results of self-assessment for professional engineering competencies could increase students’ awareness of professional competencies, thus helping students to become more intentional in connecting learning with their professional preparation. </a>Career advisors and counselors can also use this tool to guide career advising conversations revolving around students’ choice to pursue and prepare for engineering as a career path. </p>

Today’s labor market is teeming with software development jobs, and employeesare needed more than ever. With this statement, one would believe it is easy fora newly graduated student to start their career. However, according to severalstudies, there are specific areas where newly graduated Software Engineeringstudents struggle when beginning their first job. Currently, there is a displace-ment about what the school should focus on when teaching their students. Thiscauses various challenges to arise for newly graduated students when they areinitially starting their career. To address this issue, this study aims to iden-tify whether or not there exists a gap between the education provided by theuniversities, and what is expected from the industry. In accordance with this,the purpose is also the point out which areas might be challenging for newlygraduated students, and highlight how the school and industry can benefit fromthe results of this study.By conducting interviews with both newly graduated student with one to threeyears working experience or personnel responsible for hiring new employees atcompanies, this study will give an insight on which common areas newly grad-uates may struggle with. Although the result specifies several areas which arechallenging to newly graduated students. The greatest challenges which thenewly graduated graduated students faced were areas revolving around softskills. This was in accordance with the opinions of the recruiters. Insinuatingthat these areas are what the school should focus more on. Other differencesbetween the newly graduated interviewee’s opinions and the recruiters are alsohighlighted in the report Several subjects in school could improve its way ofteaching. Furthermore, there are possibilities for companies to better adjusttheir on-boarding of newly graduated. By addressing the challenges which newlygraduated face they can provide their new employees with a better understand-ing of how to properly work and function in the industry today.

"The objectives of this research were (1) to develop experimental active-based-learning curricula for undergraduate courses in transportation engineering and (2) to assess the effectiveness of an active-learning-based traffic engineering curriculum through an educational experiment. The researcher developed a new highway design course as a pilot study to test selected active-learning techniques before employing them in the traffic engineering curriculum. Active-learning techniques, including multiple-choice questions, short problems completed by individual students or small groups, and group discussions, were used as active interludes within lectures. The researcher also collected and analyzed student performance and attitude data from control and experimental classes to evaluate the relative effectiveness of the traditional lecture (control) approach and the active-learning (experimental) approach. The results indicate that the active-learning approach adopted for the experimental class did have a positive impact on student performance as measured by exam scores. The students in the experimental class also indicated slightly more positive attitudes at the end of the course than the control class, although the difference was not significant. The author recommends that active interludes similar to those in the experimental curricula be used in other courses in civil engineering."

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-05-04T15:58:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 GILDEMBERG DA CUNHA SILVA_.pdf: 648750 bytes, checksum: 2fe465c64b4c58eee4e8b08bab9f2aca (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-04T15:58:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 GILDEMBERG DA CUNHA SILVA_.pdf: 648750 bytes, checksum: 2fe465c64b4c58eee4e8b08bab9f2aca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-01-21 / IFTO - Instituto Federal de Educação Ciência e Tecnologia do Tocantins / A partir da visão do mercado da engenharia de produção no Norte do Brasil, este trabalho tem como objetivo geral identificar as competências demandadas pelos setores da indústria e serviços na formação do engenheiro de produção. O avanço do agronegócio no norte do Brasil e a instalação de grandes empresas da indústria alimentícia e de tecnologia na região vêm demandando por profissionais com habilidades e competências nas áreas e subáreas de atuação do engenheiro de produção, fomentando advento de profissionais (contadores, economistas, administradores e engenheiros) de diversas áreas do Brasil. Nesse sentido, buscou-se apresentar os conhecimentos e habilidades que os cursos de engenharia de produção das Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES) da Região Norte do Brasil tem priorizado e apresentar as competências e habilidades que as empresas/indústrias do Norte vêm demandando deste profissional. Pesquisas levantadas apontaram que o ensino por competências, com foco na formação do profissional surgiram em meados da década de 60 e 70. Neste sentido as competências priorizadas devem dialogar com a inteligência humana e as mais diversas áreas do saber e, sobretudo, com o mercado. Foram entrevistados 08 coordenadores de curso de engenharia de produção de IES da região e aplicada uma pesquisa em 43 empresas da Região Norte do Brasil. Um dos fatores da falta de profissionais se dá pela falta de centros de formação que supram as necessidades do mercado da região Norte do Brasil. No caso específico do engenheiro de produção, há ainda um grande desconhecimento das potenciais áreas de atuação do engenheiro de produção no norte do Brasil. Pesquisas futuras poderão discutir os currículos adotados nos cursos de engenharia de produção da Região Norte do Brasil. / From the market view of production engineering in the North of Brazil, this study has the general objective to identify the skills demanded by sectors of industry and services in the formation of a production engineer. The advance of agribusiness in northern Brazil and the installation of large companies in the food industry and technology in the region are demanding for professionals with skills and expertise in the areas and sub-areas of activity of the production engineer, fostering advent professionals (accountants, economists, managers and engineers) from different areas of Brazil. In this sense, it sought to provide the knowledge and skills that production engineering courses of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from the northern region of Brazil has prioritized and have the skills and abilities that companies / North industries are demanding this professional . Research raised pointed out that the teaching of skills, focusing on professional training emerged in the mid 60 and 70. In this regard the priority powers should dialogue with human intelligence and the most diverse areas of knowledge and, above all, with the market . They interviewed 08 coordinators of course IES production engineering of the region and applied research in 43 companies in the North of Brazil. One of the lack of professional factors is given by the lack of training centers that meet the market needs of northern Brazil. In the specific case of the production engineer, there is still a great lack of potential areas of activity of the production engineer in northern Brazil. Future research may discuss the curricula adopted in engineering courses production of Northern Brazil.

<p>As pedagogical innovations continue to be developed and adopted in engineering education, it is important to understand how these innovations affect the students’ experiences and achievements. A common data analysis practice when evaluating educational innovations is to aggregate the data from all of the students together. However, this data aggregation inherently biases the results toward the characteristics of the dominant student group, leaving the experiences of minority groups largely unexplored. In this dissertation, I investigate the students’ experiences and achievements in an undergraduate dynamics course, and I intentionally use analysis methods that disaggregate the data to better understand the behaviors and performance of smaller subgroups of students, not just the majority.</p> <p> This dissertation presents three studies that examine: 1) the validity, reliability, and fairness of a standardized set of conceptual questions on the final exam, with a focus on gender fairness, 2) how and why the students use the available resources, and 3) how the students’ holistic resource usage patterns relate to their academic achievement. My motivation for choosing these studies was that conceptual assessments and customized resources are two key components of the learning environment for the dynamics course. However, the quality of the conceptual exam questions used for the course had yet to be evaluated. Similarly, the learning environment for the course incorporates many customized resources, including a custom-written “lecturebook” (a hybrid of a textbook and a workbook) and an extensive online library of videos, but little was known about how the students used these resources, or how the students’ pattern of resource usage related to their performance in the course. </p> <p> The first study in this dissertation used multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis to investigate item-level gender bias in a 12-item Abbreviated Dynamics Concept Inventory (aDCI), which was a set of standardized conceptual questions included on the final exam. The results suggested that two items were slightly biased against women, with stereotypically-masculine contexts and content as possible sources of the bias. The bias in the aDCI items likely unfairly lowered some women’s final exam scores, highlighting the need for engineering educators to consider the fairness of their assessments.</p> <p> The second study used a cluster analysis of survey responses to identify nine archetypical patterns of resource usage, all of which differed from the average resource-usage pattern of the aggregated sample. An analysis of forty-four student interviews, organized by resource-usage cluster, determined that students exhibited their resource-usage behaviors largely because of how they perceived the resource’s availability, accessibility, and quality. The results illustrate that there is no “typical” way in which the students used the resources, so it is important for instructors to consider a wide array of usage behaviors when designing a course’s learning environment and resources.</p> <p> The third study utilized a multiple regression analysis to find that <i>on average</i> a student’s resource-usage pattern is not related to their achievement when controlling for many other demographic, cognitive, and non-cognitive factors that can affect resource usage and performance. However, two individual resource-usage patterns were significantly related to achievement. Students who primarily used their lecturebook and their peers for support performed better than their similar peers in other resource-usage clusters. Conversely, students who rarely used their lecturebook had lower course grades than their peers. Drawing from the results of the second study, general study-habit suggestions for the students in the course were extracted from the qualitative themes found in the interviews of the students in these two clusters.</p> <p> Overall, the results of these three studies highlight how the experiences and achievements of smaller groups of students would go unnoticed if analytical methods that only utilized aggregated data were used. While the setting of this research is specific to the assessments and resources of a given dynamics course, the methods used to disaggregate the data to gain insights about different subgroups of students are applicable to many engineering education contexts. My hope is that this work inspires more researchers to consider the experiences of all students, not just those of the majority.</p>

A visualização de informação procura interpretar as informações contidas em um conjunto de dados e através de técnicas visuais, perceber relacionamentos e padrões que auxiliam na descoberta de novos conhecimentos. O grande volume de informações nas bases educacionais sobre o rendimento na aprendizagem aumenta a dificuldade em analisar o desempenho na aprendizagem dos estudantes. Indicadores educacionais como nota, índice de aprovação e reprovação não podem ser considerados únicos medidores do desempenho, porém junto aos estilos de aprendizagem dos estudantes e perfil metodológico das disciplinas podem revelar informações sobre o desempenho. As técnicas de visualização combinadas com análises estatísticas pode ser considerada uma alternativa para explorar melhor os dados no processo de descoberta do conhecimento. Este trabalho apresenta um novo modelo para identificar relacionamentos de dados do desempenho na aprendizagem através de uma ferramenta visual interativa ao usuário. Nesse modelo é possível combinar os estilos de aprendizagem dos estudantes com estilos metodológicos das disciplinas e dados educacionais como notas, índice de aprovação e reprovação, para detectar variações de rendimento e propor modificações nas estratégias de ensino. Os dados utilizados para teste foram originados da base de dados do aproveitamento educacional dos estudantes da Escola de Engenharia Elétrica de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo. / Information visualization deals with the use of visual techniques to interpret data and to notice relationships and patterns that support an active user to discovery new knowledge. The vast quantity of information in educational databases increases the difficulty of analysis of the student\'s performance. Educational indicators such as grade, approval and fail index should not be considered as unique performance indicators; however, these indicators along with student\'s learning styles and methodological course profile can reveal educational progress. The visualization techniques combined with statistical analysis should be considered as an alternative to data exploration in the process of knowledge discovery. This work presents a new methodology to identify the relationships that demonstrate the learning performance through the development of a visualization tool in an user\'s adaptable environment. In this new methodology it is possible to combine students and courses styles to detect variations on the courses outline and suggest changes in some methodologies and teaching strategies.The data used to test the proposed methodology came from the learning process database of the Electrical Engineering School at the University of Sao Paulo/ São Carlos/SP.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:58:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gisela Hernandes Gomes.pdf: 2937233 bytes, checksum: 0973a1ccf1294a2d15765c9220bd29e8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of Mathematics utilized in End-of-program Assessment Papers in Engineering specifically the manner in which students who attend the final terms of Mechanical Engineering and Production Engineering programs in a Brazilian university report the mathematical contents learned during the undergraduate years and which mathematical elements they apply to their End-of program Assessment Papers. Additionally, the investigation attempted to clarify how two cultures that of engineers and that of the Engineering program classroom are revealed in the discourses of students and teachers. The theoretical-methodological background of the study included aspects of mathematical thinking (Schoenfeld, 1992; Cardella, 2006), of the Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2006; Corbin & Strauss, 2008), and of Video Data Analysis (Powell, Francisco, & Maher, 2004). The findings revealed differences between the culture of engineers and that of the Engineering classroom in aspects such as mathematical rigor versus the use of approximations in the results, in addition to revealing elements of the mathematical thinking present in the assessment papers elements that can be explored in the classroom with the use of modeling and computer software / O foco desta pesquisa é a investigação da Matemática utilizada em Trabalhos de Conclusão de Curso (TCCs) de Engenharia especificamente o modo como alunos que freqüentam as etapas finais de cursos de Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia de Produção falam da Matemática aprendida ao longo da graduação e que elementos matemáticos aplicam a seus TCCs. Além desse foco, interessou-nos também entender de que maneira emergem na fala dos alunos e professores, assim como nos trabalhos finais, a cultura do engenheiro e a da sala de aula de Engenharia. O embasamento teórico-metodológico adotado foi constituído dos aspectos do pensamento matemático (Schoenfeld, 1992; Cardella, 2006), da Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2006; Corbin & Strauss, 2008) e da Análise de Vídeo (Powell, Francisco, & Maher, 2004). Os resultados revelam diferenças entre a cultura do engenheiro e a da sala de aula de Engenharia, como o rigor matemático e a aproximação de resultados, além de apontarem aspectos do pensamento matemático nos TCCs que podem ser explorados em sala de aula nos cursos de Engenharia através da modelagem e do uso de softwares