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Whole-group causal-loop models engaged students in critical classroom conversations around the relationships between technology, engineering, people, and places. In this image, circles indicate components within a sociotechnical system and arrows show increasing and decreasing relationships. For example, in this image, students made connections between human health, resources (PPE, money, doctors and nurses, etc.), and Ebola prevention and treatment (vaccine development, hospital construction, infrastructure, etc.)
Source publication
Recent policy documents position engineering as a way to broaden participation for students in STEM fields. However, a recent review of the literature on engineering education found that fewer than 1% of reviewed articles focused on issues of equity and broadening participation. For this reason, there are few frameworks to build on when designing f...
Citations
... Educators have known for quite a while that students' experiences and perceptions about how STEM subjects are usually taught often contribute to their choices not to choose a STEM major (Dischino, et al., 2011). Current approaches often lack frameworks for equity-centered instruction, hindering its potential (McGowan & Bell, 2020). Fortunately, there are clues in the literature that indicate STEM curricula should expand beyond its knowledgecentric orientation. ...
This study investigates how a new first semester of a new first-year engineering course affected student engineering skills, feelings about engineering, and hesitations to declare an engineering major. Pre-and post-course surveys and interviews were conducted with eighteen students who took Engineering Problem Solving in the fall semester 2023. The course was designed to require significant teamwork among students. The course introduced students to a variety of engineering disciplines through hands-on activities. Additionally, several assignments required the students to view short video interviews with practicing exemplars who came from underrepresented groups in engineering. Results indicate students increased their skills in several engineering tasks, their confidence and sense of belonging in engineering increased slightly, and students had fewer hesitations to declare an engineering major at the conclusion of the course than prior to the course.
... Engineering work is influenced by and impacts society, both positively and negatively, regardless of whether the engineering community acknowledges it. Engineering is a sociotechnical practice (Faulkner 2015;McGowan and Bell 2020;Trevelyan 2010) and it needs to be recognised as such. Arguments and evidence for how and why engineering (and technology and science) is not new, and have been extensively debated in more established fields, such as Science and Technology Studies (STS). ...
Sociotechnical thinking (STT) has recently emerged in response to technical-social dualism. It is defined as the ability to identify, address, and respond to both social and technical dimensions of engineering. As the number of publications on STT increases, so does the need to map the literature. This paper provides a scoping literature review of STT in engineering education, focusing on research purposes, methodologies, findings, and potential gaps. Our examination of 25 papers indicates that research on STT in engineering education covers a variety of purposes and methodologies. Key findings in the literature provide a better understanding of students’ demonstration of and barriers to developing STT, the intersections between STT, engineering identity and culture, characteristics of STT, challenges and opportunities for teaching STT, and how prior knowledge and emotional connections can facilitate students’ development of STT.
... Engineering (E) in STEM education embodies a systematic methodology for conceiving and constructing objects, procedures, and systems. While less developed in lower-grade education, engineering education allows students to hone skills relevant to devising fabrication and problem-solving (McGowan & Bell, 2020;Mohd Shahali et al., 2016;Simarro & Couso, 2021). Mathematics (M) literacy within STEM education transcends conventional instruction, forging interdisciplinary bridges that interlink mathematics with other scientific disciplines, thereby engendering mutual reinforcement and interconnectedness (Just & Siller, 2022;Milaturrahmah et al., 2017). ...
STEM education integrates an interdisciplinary pedagogical model that includes rigorous scientific principles across the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics into realistic problem-solving exercises oriented toward real-world challenges, incorporating educational robotics. For the successful integration of quality STEM education, it is crucial to comprehend the perceptions of educators. This study aims to investigate the perception of primary and preschool educators regarding the incorporation of educational robotics into STEM education and the factors that influence their convictions. The research involved 307 (n=307) pre-service teachers. Data collection was carried out using a closed-ended questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of Cronbach's alpha=.885. It was observed that the respondents largely hold a highly positive attitude regarding the incorporation of educational robotics into STEM, recognizing its fundamental principles while simultaneously acknowledging the need for professional development in this domain. STEM-related courses attended by educators influence their perspectives to a certain degree, while no correlation was found with gender or specialization.
... In terms of learning, CBL drives students' knowledge integration and application through engagement in real-world challenges that lack a predefined solution. Challenges in CBL are sociotechnical, which means that they require addressing pressing current issues (e.g., climate change and energy transitions, data privacy) which require a combination of technological innovations, policy development, and societal engagement to find effective solutions (Malmqvist et al., 2015;McGowan & Bell, 2020). Students should work toward a solution using technical knowledge from various disciplines, taking into account the complex interplay between societal, technological, and environmental factors, and must present their (proposed) solution to a panel of experts and stakeholders (Gallagher & Savage, 2020;Kohn Rådberg et al., 2020;Membrillo-Hern andez, Ramírez-Cadena, et al., 2019). ...
Background
Challenge‐based learning (CBL) is a pedagogical approach increasingly adopted in engineering education. Despite its growing practice, there is little consensus in the literature about how CBL is implemented in engineering curricula and what experiences teachers and students have in relation to it.
Purpose
To address this gap, the following research questions guided the study: How is CBL currently implemented in engineering education? What difficulties and lessons learned are associated with the implementation of CBL?
Methods
We systematically reviewed the empirical literature published between 2010 and 2021. Forty‐eight empirical studies describing CBL implementation were analyzed using the curricular spider‐web framework.
Results
The review shows the variation in CBL implementation at the course and project levels. CBL courses and projects shared the use of open‐ended, real‐world challenges as a starting point for student learning. However, they differed in the embeddedness of a challenge in specific courses and the focus of the learning, which ranged across knowledge acquisition, knowledge application, and development of transversal skills. CBL experiences also varied in terms of challenge characteristics, such as the link with global societal challenges, stakeholders' involvement, and multidisciplinarity. Similar difficulties and lessons learned were reported by teachers and students across the different examples of CBL implementation.
Conclusions
CBL as a pedagogical approach in engineering education can promote student engagement with complex societal challenges within a real‐world context. However, there are limitations to the review and implications of the findings for educational research and practice.
... ( Mina et al., 2003;Papadopoulos et al., 2006Bruno et al., 2005،) نقادانه تفکر طراحی ( Gurmen et al., 2003 ) کاربست تصمیم مانند مهندسی موضوعات در نقادانه تفکر حرف اخالق و اخالقی گیری ه ای ، فناوری تاثیر و فناوری اجتماعی تأثیرات جامعه بر ، ( Nelson, 2001 ) اجتماعی عدالت همچنین و اجتماعی جایگاه و موضع از مهندسان و دانشجویان موقعیت تعیین و ( Baillie, 2013 ) تغییر فرآیند بنابراین، مهارت نیازمند عادات است یافته توسعه خودتنظیمی های (Kanfer, 1971(Kanfer, ,1970 ( Gaspersz, 2007 ) کلید عنوان به ً معموال خالقیت اثر تعریف مدت طوالنی موفقیت برای الزام یک و سازمان بخشی شده اس ت (Amabile &Conti , 1999;Porter, 1990 (Mathisen et al., 2009;Scott et al., 2004) (Clarke et al., 2004., Halx & Reybold., 2005. . ( Smith,2002( Smith, , 2003Elder, 2005;Hammersley-Fletcher& Hanley, 2016 ) مشکالت حل برای در چندبعدی و پیچیده جامعه امروزی نیاز خالق مهندسان به هستند، تکنولوژیک که زمانی ویژه به ، است ؛ ( Felder, 1987 ) (Ghorbankhani & Salehi, 2022,2020 نشان می اثبات رویکردهای استیالی دلیل به که دهد گرایانه آموزش در پژوهش ، سازمانی فرهنگ و دانشگاه در ها (Mohammadzadeh & Salehi, 2015 (Felder, 1987(Felder, , 1988 بر مبتنی یادگیری (Stouffer et al., 2004;Zhou et al., 2012) (Cropley, 2015;Kazerounian & Foley, 2007) نگرش چنین خالقانه می ای توسط تواند زبان برنامه های پلتفرم و ماژوالر نویسی مانند ماژوالر ساخت های (Klemeš et al, 2013 ...
Cultivating, forming, and developing critical thinking competencies is one of the most important success factors of engineers in problem-finding, problematization identifying innovative solutions, and solving complex problems. Therefore, in a systematic review based on PRISMA guidelines, articles indexed in Scopus, Google Scholar, and Science Direct databases in the period from 2010 to 2023, were investigated. Finally, 21 articles were selected for systematic review after the inclusion and exclusion criteria were checked. The findings indicate that a more cohesive approach is essential for successfully integrating critical thinking into engineering curricula. This approach should encompass a formal framework that promotes the development of knowledge, insight, values, and skills necessary for students throughout the curriculum practically and effectively. As a result, it is imperative to introduce pedagogical methods for teaching critical thinking to engineering faculty and to establish a tangible, practical, and understandable context for fostering this competency in engineering students. It seems that the requirements, conditions, and components needed to empower engineering professors to cultivate critical thinking in engineering students have not been formed and institutionalized.
... One aspect that makes our project distinctive is its focus on developing learning experiences-in particular, design challenges-that make students' everyday experiences salient as engineering assets. Others have argued that students' everyday and cultural experiences are valuable as funds of knowledge that can serve as a foundation for formal education-a successful approach that is commonly studied in K-12 settings (McGowan & Bell, 2020;Moll et al., FIGURE 1. Course map representing the chemical engineering program at the beginning of the project, with focal courses highlighted. The first two courses were Introduction to Chemical Engineering and Materials & Energy Balances (MEB). ...
Engineering is fundamentally about design, yet many undergraduate programs offer limited opportunities for students to learn to design. This design case reports on a grant-funded effort to revolutionize how chemical engineering is taught. Prior to this effort, our chemical engineering program was like many, offering core courses primarily taught through lectures and problem sets. While some faculty referenced examples, students had few opportunities to construct and apply what they were learning. Spearheaded by a team that included the department chair, a learning scientist, a teaching-intensive faculty member, and faculty heavily engaged with the undergraduate program, we developed and implemented design challenges in core chemical engineering courses. We began by co-designing with students and faculty, initially focusing on the first two chemical engineering courses students take. We then developed templates and strategies that supported other faculty-student teams to expand the approach into more courses. Across seven years of data collection and iterative refinements, we developed a framework that offers guidance as we continue to support new faculty in threading design challenges through core content-focused courses. We share insights from our process that supported us in navigating through challenging questions and concerns.
... This reframing of the podcast assignment was inspired by increasing calls from engineering education researchers that we must promote student awareness of engineering's social dimension, for instance by considering social justice (Riley, 2008) and the intertwined relationship of technology and society (McGowan & Bell, 2020). In particular, in "Culture of Disengagement in Engineering Education?, " a longitudinal study of engineering students at four institutions, Erin A. Cech (2014) examined students' concern with "public welfare, " defined as the effect of engineering on the general public beyond their use of technology, for instance, in terms of "social justice, […] inequality of access, the spread of risk and benefit, and issues of privacy, monitoring, and control" (p. ...
... Competent engineers possess a unique blend of technical skills and creative problemsolving, enabling innovation and entrepreneurship (Huang-Saad et al., 2018;Sneider, 2016). They contribute to economic growth by creating efficient products, reducing costs, and improving quality of life (McGowan & Bell, 2020). Their role is essential in creating a sustainable, prosperous, and innovative society, as the world becomes interconnected and forms a complex network within (Pleasants, 2023). ...
... Their role is essential in creating a sustainable, prosperous, and innovative society, as the world becomes interconnected and forms a complex network within (Pleasants, 2023). Therefore, quality education and training to produce competent engineers are essential for tackling modern challenges (Ali, 2018;McGowan & Bell, 2020;Pleasants, 2023). Providing the graduates with skills, knowledge, and mindset to navigate complex technological, societal, and environmental landscapes should be of importance to achieving a sustainable future. ...
... Furthermore, the Core Curriculum of Basic Education B.E. 2008 (Revised B.E. 2017) defines students' competencies according to the curriculum, which include the following: communication ability in implementing the curriculum, higher-ordered thinking ability, problem-solving ability, life skills, and technology ability. Therefore, it is crucial for everyone to cultivate scientific literacy, enabling them to gain knowledge and understanding of the natural world and the technology created by humanity (McGowan & Bell 2020;Sharon & Baram-Tsabari, 2020). Scientific literacy empowers individuals to apply knowledge rationally, logically, creatively, and ethically (Costa et al., 2021;Janoušková et al., 2023). ...
Active learning is an essential part of good science education. It engages students in the learning process, allowing them to get a better comprehension of scientific subjects. This research aims to enhance scientific problem-solving and also learning achievement of eighth-grade students through active learning organization. This study employed a pre-experimental design. The target group was 30 eighth-grade students from one school in Thailand. Three-hour learning management plans provided 15 hours of active learning organization. The result indicated that active learning encourages students to solve scientific problems. Students actively engage in defining and improving the learning process based on their own interests. As a result, students' academic achievement and problem-solving in science were improved. Furthermore, when comparing the academic achievement and scientific problem-solving scores between after experiment and criterion. Additionally, students expressed a high level of satisfaction with the active science learning activities, as these activities contributed to their academic achievement and problem-solving in the field of science. It can be concluded that active learning is very useful and engage students to science classroom.
... Problems that engineering students are trained to solve in classrooms are well-defined and closed-ended (Jonassen et al., 2006), and often decontextualized from contextual influences (McGowan & Bell, 2020). In practice, however, problems that engineers encounter are complex, ill-structured, and situated in social contexts, and thus sociotechnical by nature (Leydens & Lucena, 2018). ...
... Leydens & Lucena (2018) suggest that the disconnect between classroom and workplace problems is a consequence of technical-social dualism (Faulkner, 2000(Faulkner, , 2007 where engineering students are taught to prioritize technical aspects and minimize contextual aspects during problemsolving (Swartz et al., 2019). In the real world however, engineering problems involve a complex interplay between technical and contextual aspects (Kaur & Craven, 2022;McGowan & Bell, 2020;Trevelyan, 2014bTrevelyan, , 2014a. For instance, engineers are tasked to handle sociotechnical problems such as provide access to clean water, ensure privacy and cybersecurity of people, improve urban infrastructure, make energy sustainable, accessible, and economical, etc. ...
... The problems that engineers face today are complex and consist of various technical and contextual aspects that are interconnected with each other (Kaur & Craven, 2022;McGowan & Bell, 2020;Trevelyan, 2014bTrevelyan, , 2014a. As a result, engineering problems and solutions exist within a complex sociotechnical space (Adams et al., 2011) indicating that these problems cannot be addressed solely by consideration of technical factors (Leydens & Lucena, 2018). ...
