Estimates of “Street Youth” (SY) (those who live/work on the streets) show 150 million around the world, with approximately 50,000 in Kenya alone as of 2018. Challenges these youth face remain a significant barrier to national governments achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) targets, as formal schools limit access or fail to provide meaningful and supported learning experiences for SY. However, informal learning spaces that empower youth to solve problems themselves may provide them with the knowledge and skills they are denied by formal schools. SY rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration centers all around the world emphasize and place education at the center of their operations. Recommendations for educational services for SY include providing flexible, alternative education and skills training for youth unable or unwilling to return to school. However, the lack of skilled professionals working with the SY population is one of the most critical challenges.<div>To meet the learning needs of vast numbers of SY, teachers already connected to this population must be trained in teaching more empowering, skill-based courses such as engineering, which are typically complex. Such innovative, problem-centered curricula demand skilled teachers who are prepared to facilitate a more student-centered classroom. However, sub-Saharan Africa faces a shortage of 17 million formally qualified teachers, even for its formal public schools. Therefore, connecting with the teachers in the context and training them in engineering teaching is crucial. Researchers have long argued the need for teacher professional development to be continuous and long-term. Through this dissertation, I present a Design-Based Research (DBR) study of untrained Teacher Professional Development (TPD) in collaboration with three aspiring engineering teachers at an alternative school for SY in western Kenya. I draw on the theoretical framework of Situated Learning and Communities of Practice (CoP) to discuss the outcomes of a three-phase professional development program. Each phase was designed using the recommendation from McKenney et al. (2006) to include three iterative micro-cycles of analysis, design, and evaluation leading to a meso-cycle. In total, three meso-cycles were completed to arrive at DBR’s final phase of reflection and generation of design principles.<br></div><div>In the first phase, teachers in this study adopted reflective practice strategies to increase their awareness of the practice. Analysis from the study showed that the teachers individually and collectively showed resilience to challenging and complex experiences by establishing a strong foundation for the community of practice. In the second phase, teachers engaged in action research to improve both teaching and learning outcomes. Results demonstrated increased active participation of the teachers in their teaching practice, and developed new understandings of engineering teaching. However, the first two studies also showed the challenges limiting the teachers from constructing an engineering teacher identity and unresolved questions about the sustainability of the TPD. Therefore, in the last phase, the teachers adopted mentoring new teachers as a strategy to develop their identities and sustain the engineering TPD.<br></div><div>The findings from the three phases resulted in generation of design outcomes that include a situated understanding of the theory in this fragile context and design principles that are transferable in comparable settings. Implications of this work suggest a sustainable teacher professional development model for untrained engineering teachers in fragile contexts and present relevant design principles for the CoP.<br></div>

<p>The Theory of Applied Mind of Programming (TAMP) provides a new model for describing how programmers think and learn. Historically, many students have struggled when learning to program. Programming as a discipline lives in logic and reason, but theory and science tell us that people do not always think rationally. TAMP builds upon the groundbreaking work of dual process theory and classical educational theorists (Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner) to rethink our assumptions about cognition and learning. Theory guides educators and researchers to improve their practice, not just their work but also their thinking. TAMP provides new theoretical constructs for describing the mental activities of programming, the challenges in learning to program, as well as a guidebook for creating and recognizing the value of theory.</p> <p>This dissertation is highly nontraditional. It does not include a typical empirical study using a familiar research methodology to guide data collection and analysis. Instead, it leverages existing data, as accumulated over a half-century of computing education research and a century of research into cognition and learning. Since an applicable methodology of theory-building did not exist, this work also defines a new methodology for theory building. The methodology of this dissertation borrows notation from philosophy and methods from grounded theory to define a transparent and rigorous approach to creating applied theories. By revisiting past studies through the lens of new theoretical propositions, theorists can conceive, refine, and internally validate new constructs and propositions to revolutionize how we view technical education.</p> <p>The takeaway from this dissertation is a set of new theoretical constructs and promising research and pedagogical approaches. TAMP proposes an applied model of Jerome Bruner's mental representations that describe the knowledge and cognitive processes of an experienced programmer. TAMP highlights implicit learning and the role of intuition in decision making across many aspects of programming. This work includes numerous examples of how to apply TAMP and its supporting theories in re-imagining teaching and research to offer alternative explanations for previously puzzling findings on student learning. TAMP may challenge conventional beliefs about applied reasoning and the extent of traditional pedagogy, but it also offers insights on how to promote creative problem-solving in students. </p><br>

Grades serve as one of the primary indicators of student learning, directing subsequent actions for students, instructors, and administrators, alike. Therefore, grade validity—that is, the extent to which grades communicate a meaningful and credible representation of what they purport to measure—is of utmost importance. However, a grade cannot be valid if one cannot trust that it will consistently and reliably result in the same value, regardless of who makes a measure or when they make it. Unfortunately, such reliability becomes increasingly challenging to achieve with larger class sizes, especially when utilizing multiple evaluators, as is often the case with mandatory introductory courses at large universities. Reliability suffers further when evaluating open-ended tasks, as are prevalent in authentic, high-quality engineering coursework.<div><br></div><div>This study explores grading reliability in the context of a large, multi-section engineering course. Recognizing the number of people involved and the plethora of activities that affect grading outcomes, the study adopts a systems approach to conduct a human reliability analysis using the Functional Resonance Analysis Method. Through this method, a collection of data sources, including course materials and observational interviews with undergraduate teaching assistant graders, are synthesized to produce a general model for how actions vary and affect subsequent actions within the system under study. Using a course assignment and student responses, the model shows how differences in contextual variables affect expected actions within the system. Next, the model is applied to each of the observational interviews with undergraduate teaching assistants to demonstrate how these actions occur in practice and to compare graders to one another and with expected behaviors. These results are further related to the agreement in system outcomes, or grades, assigned by each grader to guide analysis of how actions within the system affect its outcome.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The results of this study connect and elaborate upon previous models of grader cognition by analyzing the phenomenon in engineering, a previously unexplored context. The model presented can be easily generalized and adapted to smaller systems with fewer actors to understand sources of variability and potential threats to outcome reliability. The analysis of observed outcome instantiations guides a set of recommendations for minimizing grading variability.<br></div>

<p>Socioeconomic inequality unduly impacts the pathways of socioeconomically disadvantaged students (SDS) in engineering. Past and present scholarship suggests that inequitable access to physical and interpersonal resources inhibits K-16+ students' ability to engage in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) meaningfully. This lack of access negatively impacts SDS' pursuit of, and success in, engineering. Thus far, quantitative studies seeking to understand SDS' trajectories to and through engineering have used income as a proxy for socioeconomic disadvantage. However, such measures are not theoretically positioned to accurately depict or account for the complex sociological processes that lead to, or result from, socioeconomic inequality. Furthermore, such measures do not account for parallel inequalities such as racism, sexism, and classism that exist, influence, and are influenced by it. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to 1) develop a more sociologically accurate measure of socioeconomic inequality, 2) to use that measure to identify the impacts of such inequality on SDS' pathways to and through engineering, and finally, 3) to explore the narrative experiences of SDS when accounting for a more accurate depiction. Using a Critical Realist Feminist approach to structural equation modeling, restricted data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) as well as other supplemental data were used to construct and test a more complex and representative measure of socioeconomic disadvantage, the Model of Socioeconomic Inequality (Study 1). Study 2 used this model to examine how aspects predicting important engineering student outcomes. Neighborhood location and conditions, level of Parent Educational Involvement, and availability of Household Educational Resources negatively impact SDS' opportunities to engage and succeed in engineering and college more broadly. Furthermore, the model suggested that such interactions are uniquely mediated by the intersectional inequalities experienced by SDS and their families. Finally, a rich narrative of one student, Samantha, is included to better understand the lived experiences of SDS amongst their pathways to and through engineering. Samantha was a Queer Asian American female SDS graduating from Computer Science Engineering who has low scores on Parent Educational Involvement and Household Educational Resources. Samantha's narrative shows the important role that the factors identified in the Model of Socioeconomic Inequality had in her experiences. Specifically, Samantha had little access to Parent Educational Involvement and Household Educational Resources from her parents. Rather, these forms of support came from what she referred to as her ``chosen family,'' a group of professors, co-workers, friends, and others who viewed and supported her identity authentically and provided her physical resources when she needed them. Access to this group and the resources they provided supported Samantha's belonging and her ability to succeed in engineering. However, Samantha's narrative also uncovered findings not included in the Model of Socioeconomic Inequality. Specifically, Samantha's narrative suggested she had experienced significant, long-term traumas that were both related and unrelated to her socioeconomic experiences. These traumas negatively impacted Samantha's feelings of belonging and caused her to question her place in engineering, but they were partially mitigated by the support of her chosen family. This three-study dissertation challenges current engineering education thinking regarding the knowledge and study of socioeconomics, trauma, and Intersectionality more broadly. It also challenges engineering education researchers and practitioners to question the current methods of how they support SDS in a multitude of spaces.</p>

<p>Makerspaces can support educational experiences in prototyping for young learners, while physical computing platforms enable high levels of creativity and expression. However, each of these have high barriers of entry, especially for youth without prior experience. Commercial microcontrollers have become a popular tool to use when designing both basic and complex electro-mechanical devices. Block-based programming interfaces are an ideal environment to program these microcontrollers, lowering the barrier of entry for young, novice programmers. Finally, incorporating physical computing devices alongside Augmented Reality (AR) presents opportunities for shared experiences between users, leading to more engagement, which creates opportunities for social interaction, ideation, and creativity. This thesis presents the MakAR project, which aims to empower youth to design, build, and play through interactions with AR, physical prototyping, and the Internet of Things (IoT). We sought to design an interactive system with which we can (1) explore novel interactions between physical and virtual content, (2) lower the barrier to entry for young makers to design, build, and play with DIY electro-mechanical devices, and (3) engage and collaborate with one another both virtually and physically in an AR-IoT environment. Our results provide evidence to how our system enables youth, with and without prior experience with physical computing, to both engage and struggle with designing AR-IoT interactions while using our system, helps reduce the barrier to entry for young users to create complex electro-mechanical devices, and provides unique shared AR-IoT experiences for both novices and expert users.</p>

Engineering students entering the workforce often struggle to meet the competency expectations of their employers. Guided by constructivist theory, the purpose of this case study was to understand engineers' experiences of engineering education, deficiencies in practical skills, and the self-learning methods they employed to advance their technical and professional competencies. Working engineers were asked about their experiences overcoming practical skill deficiencies and bridging the gap between education and practice. Interviews with 15 chemical, civil, mechanical, and electrical engineers were analyzed by coding for common statements and identifying themes. Firsthand experiences of the participants captured 3 themes: overall perceptions of engineering education, deficiencies in skills, and self-learning experiences. According to study findings, engineering education did not supply sufficient practical skills for working engineers. The study also provided descriptions of training and self-learning methods employed by practicing engineers to advance their technical and professional competencies. The study found that although universities might provide some practical skills through industry collaboration, engineering graduates still required professional development to ensure a smooth transition from academic learner to acclimated working engineer. The project is a practical training, developed for recent graduates, that could achieve positive social change by making strides toward bridging the gap between theory and practice for the participants. This study may also incite positive social change as it contributes to the evidence that there is a lack of practical experience in colleges of engineering, which may therefore improve their curriculum.

Fehlende Kompetenzen in Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften werden von Studierenden als ein Grund für den Studienabbruch in Ingenieurwissenschaften angegeben (Heublein et al., 2017). Welche Kompetenzen für Studierende zu Beginn des Ingenieurstudiums relevant sind, ist jedoch bisher wenig empirisch untersucht. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist, relevante mathematische Kompetenzen von Ingenieurstudierenden zu analysieren und dabei sowohl Wissensbestände als auch die Anwendung von Wissen und die Zusammenhänge zwischen beiden Bereichen zu berücksichtigen. Dazu wurde eine Studie im Mixed-Methods Design entwickelt. In dieser werden die Studierenden hinsichtlich ihrer Dispositionen in Mathematik und Physik zu Beginn des Studiums und am Ende des ersten Studienjahres mit quantitativen Methoden getestet. Zu diesen beiden und einem weiteren Zeitpunkt am Ende des ersten Semesters wurden zudem die situationsspezifischen Fähigkeiten bei der Bearbeitung von Mathematik- und Physikaufgaben mit Hilfe eines theoretischen Rahmens zum mathematischen Problemlösen mit qualitativen Methoden untersucht. Dieser Theorierahmen umfasste für die Mathematikaufgaben die Aspekte Heurismen (Bruder & Collet, 2011; Schoenfeld, 1980) und Problemlösephasen (Polya, 1957) sowie das Modell der Epistemic Games (Tuminaro, 2004) zur Analyse der Bearbeitung von Physikaufgaben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen Zusammenhänge zwischen mathematischen und physikali-schen Dispositionen. Zusätzlich wird die Bedeutung von Aspekten des Problemlösens deutlich, um die Prozesse bei den Bearbeitungen von Mathematik und Physikaufgaben im ersten Studienjahr zu analysieren. Auf Grundlage der qualitativen Beschreibungen konnten Cluster von Fällen von Studierenden gebildet werden. Mit Hilfe dieser Cluster zeigen sich Zusammenhänge zwischen den Dispositionen und situationsspezifischen Fähigkeiten bei den besonders leistungsstarken und leistungsschwachen Studierenden. / Missing competences in mathematics and sciences are cited by students as a reason for the drop-out in engineering sciences (Heublein et al., 2017). However, the competences that are relevant for students at the beginning of their engineering studies have so far not been investigated in an empirical way. The aim of this study is to analyse relevant mathematical competences of engineering students, taking into account both knowledge and the application of knowledge and the interrelationships between the two. A study in mixed method design was developed for this purpose. In this study, students are tested with regard to their dispositions in mathematics and physics at the beginning of their studies and at the end of the first year of their studies using quantitative methods. At these two points in time and a further time at the end of the first semester, the situation-specific skills in processing math and physics tasks were examined with the help of a theoretical framework for solving mathematical problems, using qualitative methods. This theoretical framework included for the mathematical tasks the aspects heuristics (Bruder & Collet, 2011; Schoenfeld, 1980) and problem solving phases (Polya, 1957) as well as the model of Epistemic Games (Tuminaro, 2004) for the analysis of the processing of physical tasks. The results show interrelationships between mathematical and physical dispositions. In addition, it became clear that there is a need of problem solving aspects in order to analyse the processes involved in the working on maths and physics tasks in the first year of studies. Based on the qualitative descriptions, clusters of student cases could be formed. These clusters show the interrelationships between dispositions and situation-specific skills of particularly high-performing and underperforming students.

To provide a basis for the development of interaction curves for tubular beam-columns of annular cross section, a general purpose beam-column computer program is developed, and used to determine ultimate load capacities. The paper presents the analytical model and the computer method. The analytical results are compared with published test data as well as experimental data obtained as part of this project.

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Denna studie har kartlagt vilka drivmedel som användes av svenska handelsflottans fartyg från 2016 och hur stor andel som inte var petroleumbaserad. Fokus riktades mot Linnéuniversitetets sjöingenjörsprogram där en analys av kursplaners mål samt innehåll belyste om alternativa drivmedel fanns inkluderat i utbildningen. Respondenterna på sjöingenjörsprogrammet var delaktiga i en intervjustudie som klargjorde om framtidsutsikter för realisering av alternativa drivmedel var möjlig. Resultaten visade att det fanns tre alternativa drivmedel inom svenska sjöfarten, där inga kurser hade direkt koppling men genom ledord fanns tre kurser med relevans till alternativa drivmedel. Det fanns ett gemensamt mål inom respondenterna på Linnéuniversitetet om alternativa drivmedel men vägen till förverkligande var inte klarsynt. / A few years ago, marine diesel and heavy fuel oil were the fuels that drove shipsforward. But with new legal requirements and climate goals, other potential fuelshave seen the light of day. These alternative fuels have resulted in an increase in thesystems you need knowledge of on board. The purpose of the study is to focus onhow the education to become a marine engineer keeps up with the rapidtechnological development that is taking place today.The study was carried out in several stages where document studies were compiledand became the basis for an interview study. The first document study resulted inwhat fuel the Swedish merchant fleet's newer ships use. In addition to marine dieseland heavy oil, alternative fuels such as liquid natural gas, methanol and batteryoperation are also used. These alternative fuels are used or can be used on about athird of the surveyed ships today.The second document study was done against the marine engineering program tosee if there was any connection to alternative fuels in the education's syllabuses. Nodirect connection was found, but by using key words for alternative fuels, threecourses were found with content that could be associated with the alternative fuels.The results of the document studies formed the basis for an interview study in whichpersonnel linked to the marine engineering education at the Linnaeus Universitywere interviewed. The result of the interview study was that all respondents agreedthat education is needed in the alternative fuels that have arrived. However, therespondents did not agree on what the training should look like, as there were manydifferent education proposals. Since there were also expressions from respondentsabout time, knowledge, and resource shortages, they need to reach an agreementwith a way forward to be able to secure the educational efforts towards a commongoal.