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Background: Spatial problem-solving is an essential skill for success in many engineering disciplines; thus, understanding the cognitive processes involved could help inform the design of training interventions for students trying to improve this skill. Prior research has yet to investigate the differences in cognitive processes between spatial tasks in problem-solving to offer learners timely feedback. Purpose/Hypothesis: In this study, we investigated how different spatial tasks change the cognitive processes and problem-solving strategies used by engineering students with low spatial ability. Design/Method: Study participants completed mental rotation and mental cutting tasks of high and low difficulty. Eye-tracking data were collected and categorized as encoding, transformation, and confirmation cognitive processes. The adoption of either a holistic or piecemeal strategy and response accuracy were also measured. Results: Mental rotation was found to have a higher number of fixations for each cognitive process than the mental cutting task. The holistic strategy was used in both difficulty levels of the mental cutting task, while the piecemeal strategy was adopted for the mental rotation task at a high difficulty level. Only encoding fixations were significantly correlated with accuracy and most strongly correlated with strategy. Conclusion: Encoding is an important cognitive process that could affect subsequent cognitive processes and strategies and could, thus, play an important role in performance. Future development in spatial training should consider how to enhance encoding to aid students with low spatial ability. Educators can utilize gaze metrics and empirical research to provide tailored and timely feedback to learners.

This study presents a between- and within-subjects quasi-experiment that investigated the impact of interactive holographic scenes (virtual environment) on learning sensing technologies such as laser scanners, drones, radiofrequency identification devices, and inertial measurement units. To achieve this, the study assessed students' semester project grades, survey ratings, and spatial reasoning tests in two study groups to investigate the effects of the virtual environment on students' learning outcomes. The study further assessed the impacts of individual differences in spatial reasoning abilities on learning with the environment. The findings revealed the effectiveness of the virtual environment for learning sensing technologies via higher positive ratings on the postsurvey (57%), a higher number of perfect scores on the semester project (43%), and higher perceived learning gains (71%) for the experimental group. However, higher but not statistically significant evidence that the virtual learning environment might be better than traditional learning methods was highlighted. Qualitative feedback from the students indicated that the virtual learning environment was fun, exciting, and informative. Students noted the need for more interactions with the learning environment during the semester. The study found no relationship between students' spatial abilities and learning outcomes. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the potentials of virtual environments for hands-on experiences in construction education.

The long history of experiential learning in construction engineering shows the significant potential of cognitive development through direct experience. Recent advancements in gamification, especially digital serious games, can help educators develop novel pedagogical strategies to promote active and experiential learning in controlled settings. Despite considerable attention to this field during the last two decades, game-based educational solutions for construction engineering are far from achieving their full potential, and still little is known about systematic ways to direct research and development works in this domain. The first step toward developing systematic plans to advance research in this area is to analytically understand the extent, range, and nature of the existing research to identify research gaps and potential directions for future studies. This study addresses this need through a scoping review based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR). Throughout the research process, we identified 103 relevant studies. We extracted two sets of information from each document during the review process. The first set incorporates basic attributes of the publications, including the type of the document, publication year, and author affiliation. The second set of information concentrates on the contents of the documents to analyze their contextual characteristics and contributions to the field. Using the extracted information, we discuss the limitations in the state-of-the-art research in this rapidly growing field and propose a set of potential directions and considerations for future studies.

Thermodynamics is a foundational course in nearly every engineering program. In a traditional classroom, instructors focus on the analysis of thermodynamic energy systems and their application to real world contexts. Because these complex systems can be difficult to understand, some instructors encourage students to tap into their creative side and translate thermodynamics into a language they can clearly understand. In this study, the instructor of a sophomore-level engineering thermodynamics class asked students to generate a creative interpretation of Thermodynamics. The presentations were a high-energy event in rhythms and rhymes, as students presented their creative work; evaluation shows the creative interpretation helped clarify course concepts and increased students' appreciation of thermodynamics and the engineering profession. This study further investigates the relationship between students' performance on problems and final exam scores [N = 147]. Results indicated that students' engagement in creative presentations contributed to their learning on the topic chosen by students in their creative entries.

With growing mental health concerns among college students, they need to effectively develop skills to alleviate stress amidst the demands of university life. Teaching mindfulness skills to engineering students early in their programs, such as during introductory courses, may provide students with the tools they need to effectively cope with academic stressors, support well-being, and mitigate mental health concerns. This study aimed to understand the variation in experiences of engineering students who participated in weekly mindfulness meditation during a first-year cornerstone engineering course. This study used a thematic analysis approach to analyze students' in-class, weekly reflections from eight meditation exercises across two course sections. The frequency of codes and themes were then analyzed across meditation types to identify trends in student experiences. Our results show that the most common student experience from engaging in mindfulness meditation was feeling less stressed, calmer, and more relaxed. Other positive experiences include feeling more energized and focused. Some students, however, did report some negative experiences, such as distress and tiredness. The Dynamic Breathing exercise, in particular, showed higher rates of negative experiences than other meditation types. The results also demonstrate that different types of meditations produce different student experiences. Meditation exercises with open monitoring components showed higher rates of insight/awareness and difficulty focusing attention than focused attention meditations. These findings indicate that utilizing weekly mindfulness exercises in introductory engineering courses can benefit students' overall mental health and well-being when adequately implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Engineering practice is meant to advance the human condition, yet curricula do not appear to fully promote the human-centered philosophy of engineering in implementation. The educational system may inadvertently signal to students that engineering is a career choice better suited for those preferring to work with things rather than people. This framing of the profession prompts questions regarding student interests when compared to those of practicing engineers and how such interests become concrete through education and introduction into the profession. Purpose/Hypothesis: We compare engineering students' and practitioners' interest in working with people or things in their environment. We examine gender differences for each sample. Design/Methods: Multiple analysis of variance was used to examine the samples of practicing engineers (n = 339) and first-year engineering students (n= 383). A multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis provides evidence of measurement invariance and justifies the use of the person-thing orientation (PO-TO) scale structure for both samples. Results: Detailed PO values reveal that students' PO scores (n = 383, M = 3.313) are more than one and a half points lower than practicing engineer counterparts examined (n = 339, M = 4.836). However, no significant difference between practicing engineers and students was found for TO. Further, statistically significant differences in PO and TO were found between male and female participants within both samples, students and practicing engineers. Conclusions: Differences detected in PO and TO across the samples suggest possible environmental factors influencing student perspectives of the engineering profession. This condition may inadvertently discourage more diverse students from pursuing engineering.

Spatial thinking is the foundation for successful problem-solving and critical thinking. Scholars have confirmed that spatial skills are essential tools for problem solving in fields such as engineering, design, physics, and mathematics. Drawing on Bandura's self-efficacy theory, this study investigates the impact of instructional modality, self-efficacy, and attitudes toward a spatial visualization app on student motivation in the context of an engineering remedial spatial visualization course. Our study focused on undergraduate engineering students from two cohorts with different instructional modalities, one in 2019 and the other in 2020. This study employs a quantitative approach, gathering data through questionnaires to measure student motivation, self-efficacy, attitudes toward the app, computer-aided design (CAD) experience, gender, and instructional modality. Our findings indicate that instructional modality significantly influenced student motivation, with online instruction during the pandemic being associated with lower motivation. Furthermore, significant predictors of student motivation were identified as self-efficacy and attitudes towards the app, independent of instructional modality. The findings provide insights into strategies for educators to implement educational technology in their courses while also remaining committed to nurturing student self-efficacy in online and in-person learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution: This paper analyzes reflective thinking within organizational structures in higher education and draws parallels between the challenges faced by educators developing interdisciplinary courses and their students working in ill-structured projects. Background: Interdisciplinarity as a learning goal is prevalent across engineering education literature. However, without organizational support structures to guide faculty members in developing interdisciplinary courses, interdisciplinarity as a student learning outcome is difficult to sustain. There is a need to evolve existing organizational structures faculty navigate when creating interdisciplinary courses, so that competing organizational systems do not stifle interdisciplinarity. Moreover, educators' effort in developing interdisciplinary courses is mirrored in the uncertain processes in which instructors engage students. Research Questions: In settings of interdisciplinary curriculum design and implementation, how do interdisciplinary faculty collaborations parallel that of their student design teams? How do organizational structures affect interdisciplinary faculty teams designing courses that span disciplines? Methodology: The study used a qualitative case, bound by three required courses in a new interdisciplinary undergraduate minor. Data was collected via interviews, class observations, and student reflection assignments. Analysis was guided by the conceptual frameworks of King and Kitchener's reflective judgment model and strange and banning's conceptualization of campus learning environments. Findings: Both educators and students develop through the discomfort with uncertainty--a prevalent theme in complex problem-solving. Forms of summative assessment pose an added challenge for both groups as they negotiate organizational structures. Lastly, discipline-specific expectations and ways of valuing knowledge contribute to uncertainty through the interactions among groups.

For the last decade, remedial spatial visualization training has been offered to first-year engineering students in traditional classroom settings where students attend class and interact face-to-face with an instructor and peers. An alternative to the traditional pedagogical approach is a multi-modal blended learning format that combines in-class instruction with videos that can be viewed at the student's convenience. The new setting affords students the opportunity to repeatedly revisit the basic instruction at the time and place of their choosing. This case study investigated student outcomes in a blended multi-modal Introduction to Spatial Visualization course that integrated video lectures; free-hand sketching techniques, sketching outdoors, Computer-aided-design (CAD) instruction, and 3D printed artifact manipulation. There was a statistically significant improvement on two (pre-topost) spatial measures and performance on a drawing task.

Traditional office hours are typically poorly attended for a variety of reasons, including the limitations imposed by faculty office space constraints in terms of simultaneous student participation. Virtual office hours are an option for instructors to support their students through a virtual learning environment. Research suggests that virtual environments are beneficial to both learners and educators, offering more flexibility in the learning process. Further, participation in office hours provides a platform for student-instructor interaction, claimed in the growing body of research to improve student learning experiences overall. This paper describes the design and structure of virtual office hours offered in three undergraduate energy-related mechanical engineering courses (Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, and Heat Transfer) before the COVID-19 pandemic. The student learning experience was analyzed through an assessment of student responses on anonymous end-of-course evaluations. Findings revealed that students appreciated the virtual office hours and felt that they were more accommodated than could have been in a traditional office hour setting. Findings suggested as well that students appreciated the virtual setting more as they progressed through a series of courses offering virtual office hours. Findings from our study can be helpful for a broader audience of researchers and educators in an educational environment that is increasingly online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First-year engineering (FYE) students are routinely screened for spatial ability, with the goals of predicting retention in the major and identifying those who need supplementary spatial instruction. Psychometric tests used for such screenings are often domain-general measures that lack diagnostic information to inform remedial instruction. A new approach to spatial screening is to use measures that assess performance on authentic engineering tasks while accounting for the cognitive processes that underlie spatial thinking. We tested the utility of a relatively new spatial visualization test (the Santa Barbara Solids Test; SBST) to characterize individual differences in performance among FYE students with low mental rotation scores. The internal reliability and predictive validity of the SBST were previously demonstrated in sample populations with average spatial skill. One hundred and forty-one FYE students with low mental rotation scores completed the SBST and an engineering drawing task before instruction. We investigated the internal reliability of the SBST, patterns of performance and the validity of the test to predict performance on the drawing task. Through item analysis, we deleted problems that contributed to low internal reliability. Performance means were normally distributed. There were small significant positive correlations between the drawing task and SBST total score and subscales. The SBST shows promise for diagnosing difficulties and strategies demonstrated by students who are challenged by spatial visualization. We suggest applications of the SBST to support remedial spatial instruction.

Success in complex and holistic engineering practices requires more than problem-solving abilities and technical competencies. Engineering education must offer proficient technical competences and also train engineers to think and act ethically. A technical "engineering-like" focus and demand have made educators and students overlook the importance of ethical awareness and transversal competences. Using two Finnish surveys, conducted in 2014 and 2016, we examine how engineers perceive working life needs regarding ethics. The data consider different age groups. We research whether an engineer's age affects their perception of the importance of ethics in their work and if there are differences between young experts and young managers in their use of ethics within work. The results indicate that practising engineers do not consider ethical issues important in their work. This especially applies to younger engineers; the older an engineer, the more important they consider ethics. No statistically significant difference was found between young engineering experts and managers.

Background: Undergraduate students consistently struggle with mastering concepts related to thermodynamics. Prior work has shown that haptic technology and intensive hands‐on workshops help improve learning outcomes relative to traditional lecture‐based thermodynamics instruction. The current study takes a more feasible approach to improving thermal understanding by incorporating simple mechanical objects into individual problem‐solving exercises. Purpose/Hypotheses: This study tests the impact of simple mechanical objects on learning outcomes (specifically, problem‐solving performance and conceptual understanding) for third‐year undergraduate engineering students in a thermodynamics course across a semester. Design/Method: During the semester, 119 engineering students in two sections of an undergraduate thermodynamics course completed three 15‐min, self‐guided problem‐solving tasks, one section without and the other with a simple and relevant physical object. Performance on the tasks and improvements in thermodynamics comprehension (measured via Thermal and Transport Concept Inventory scores) were compared between the two sections. Results: Students who had a simple, relevant object available to solve three thermodynamics problems consistently outperformed their counterparts without objects, although only to statistical significance when examining the simple effects for the third problem. At the end of the semester, students who had completed the tasks with the objects displayed significantly greater improvements in thermodynamics comprehension than their peers without the relevant object. Higher mechanical aptitude facilitated the beneficial effect of object availability on comprehension improvements. Conclusion: Findings suggest that the incorporation of simple mechanical objects into active learning exercises in thermodynamics curricula could facilitate student learning in thermodynamics and potentially other abstract domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to graphically depict objects in two- and three-dimensional space is fundamental to engineering design practice. Historically, engineers have used pencil, paper, and erasers to draft preliminary sketches and to transform initial drafts into precise production drawings. With the proliferation of computer-aided design (CAD) software programs, instruction in descriptive geometry, and manual drawing has largely vanished from engineering education programs. This article describes the history of instruction in descriptive geometry and manual drawing. It also presents a case study that investigates the contribution of CAD instruction with and without supplemental instruction in descriptive geometry and drawing to the development of students' spatial abilities in an engineering design graphics class.

A lecture-based theoretical approach is frequently utilized when teaching courses in electrical circuits and the educational learning objectives are often limited solely to content learning. This paper describes how a lecture-based electrical circuits' course was redesigned utilizing pedagogies of engagement to produce an environment that stimulates creativity and allows for the following additional learning objectives to be pursued: (1) improvement of hands-on skills, (2) increase in design abilities, and (3) teaming/collaboration proficiency. Educators are often deterred from pursuing these additional learning objectives in a large classroom or when there is lack of space and equipment. In this study, a "lab in a box" approach is outlined and shown to overcome these deterrents and foster an environment of student engagement. An inexpensive and easy-to-maintain portable kit was developed to enable approximately 300 undergraduate students each year to build and design electrical circuits. While teaching a course titled ENGR 2431-DC Circuits for years in a traditional large lecturebased classroom, the instructor was eager to adopt an alternative pedagogy to increase students' intrinsic motivation and overall engagement in the class. The expected benefits of the project in the near term were to increase student engagement and add three additional learning objectives to the course. After implementing the "lab in a box" project in a large classroom, survey data and observational experiences provided an indication that students are more engaged and in control of their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This synthesis paper explores current leadership training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Bulgaria. The analysis begins with discussion of global factors influencing the implementation of leadership training in STEM education in general and then presents information about the current status of leadership training in Bulgaria with emphases on the country's economics, politics and geographical location as specific factors influencing leadership education. A short background of Bulgaria is presented with regard to population, gross domestic product, educational system, engineering force and possible need for leaders in industry in Bulgaria and the European Union. The paper provides an overall view about the current status of leadership training in all Bulgarian universities offering STEM education and concentrates specifically on two major universities by examining their currently offered programmes. As part of the discussion, similar training elements in other European countries and the USA are presented. (Contains 1 table.)

Background: Spatial problem‐solving is an essential skill for success in many engineering disciplines; thus, understanding the cognitive processes involved could help inform the design of training interventions for students trying to improve this skill. Prior research has yet to investigate the differences in cognitive processes between spatial tasks in problem‐solving to offer learners timely feedback. Purpose/Hypothesis: In this study, we investigated how different spatial tasks change the cognitive processes and problem‐solving strategies used by engineering students with low spatial ability. Design/Method: Study participants completed mental rotation and mental cutting tasks of high and low difficulty. Eye‐tracking data were collected and categorized as encoding, transformation, and confirmation cognitive processes. The adoption of either a holistic or piecemeal strategy and response accuracy were also measured. Results: Mental rotation was found to have a higher number of fixations for each cognitive process than the mental cutting task. The holistic strategy was used in both difficulty levels of the mental cutting task, while the piecemeal strategy was adopted for the mental rotation task at a high difficulty level. Only encoding fixations were significantly correlated with accuracy and most strongly correlated with strategy. Conclusion: Encoding is an important cognitive process that could affect subsequent cognitive processes and strategies and could, thus, play an important role in performance. Future development in spatial training should consider how to enhance encoding to aid students with low spatial ability. Educators can utilize gaze metrics and empirical research to provide tailored and timely feedback to learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the construction industry continues to advance technologically, the adoption of sensing technologies is gradually gaining momentum. Sensing technologies (such as radio frequency identification systems, laser scanners, cameras, and global position systems) play a significant role in reducing costs, improving project productivity, and enhancing workers' health and safety. This has prompted the need for a workforce with the required skills and knowledge for deploying sensing technologies in the industry. Since construction-related education is aimed at preparing students for the future of the industry, it is important to investigate the industry's expectations for equipping the future workforce with the required skills. This study adopts a mixed-method research approach. Data are collected from surveys, case studies, and a focus group discussion with industry practitioners. The data elucidate participants' perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs regarding: the skills required, and level of knowledge transfer required to advance sensing technologies on construction projects, and the value and anticipated demand for these skills. The findings also revealed the extent to which sensing technologies are deployed in the industry and the benefits driving the adoption of these technologies. The results reveal a high rate of adoption of sensing technologies amongst industry practitioners and inform construction applications and skills to be taught in construction engineering education. This study contributes to the existing scarce literature on the knowledge and skill demands of the industry to implement sensing technologies. The findings provide critical feedback for expanding the construction education curriculum to meet up the industry's demand and adequately prepare the future workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]