Enhancing Multiple Thinking through the Engineering Design Process

Jaby Mohammed; Mary Ragnhild Hilja Hatakka

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Conference: 2016 ASEE International Forum
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Publication Date: June 25, 2016
Start Date: June 25, 2016
End Date: June 25, 2016
Conference Session: Concurrent Paper Tracks Session II Skills Development
Tagged Topics: Diversity and International Forum
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--27243
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/27243
Download Count: 268

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Paper Authors

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Jaby Mohammed Petroleum Institute orcid.org/0000-0003-0057-5077

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Jaby Mohammed is a faculty at The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He received his PhD in Industrial Engineering from University of Louisville (2006), masters in Industrial Engineering from University of Louisville (2003) and also a master’s in business administration from Indira Gandhi National Open University (2001). His research interests include advanced manufacturing, design methodologies, six sigma, lean manufacturing, and engineering education. He previously taught at Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne, IN and at Morehead State University, KY. He is a member of IIE, SME, ASQ, ASEE, and Informs.

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Mary Ragnhild Hilja Hatakka Petroleum Institute

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Dr Mary Hatakka has over 20 years of experience teaching academic literacy skills, English for Specific Purposes to engineering students and study skills in general. She has recently completed her doctorate at the university of Exeter, UK, and is currently working on improving first year students' transition from school to university. Her current research interests are academic literacy skills,engineering habits of mind and developing workplace skills for engineering students.

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Abstract

The Royal Academy of Engineering [1] identified six main types of cognitive abilities that engineering students need to develop. They included systems thinking, problem-finding, visualizing, improving, creative problem-solving and adaptability [1]. All these thinking skills require the understanding of multiple views and the application of knowledge. However, most engineering students start their first year undergraduate studies believing that the right answer is either at the back of the book or what the teacher expects for an oral or written answer in the classroom or in a test. This kind of thinking is very dualistic and was already identified as the starting point for most undergraduates in the 1970s by Perry [2] in his model of intellectual development. While the students’ notion is partially true, there are also tasks, tests and assignments of a more exploratory nature, which require handling multiple views on issues, with no one right answer or solution. One such task is understanding and application of the engineering design process. Undergraduate engineering students frequently struggle with this, as it is very hard for them to understand that there is not necessarily only one correct solution. Perry’s model [2] of intellectual development also has parallels with the revised Bloom’s taxonomy (Krathwohl, 2002). In order to investigate see whether the students’ thinking skills develop between their Freshman and Sophomore years in an English-medium engineering college in the Middle East, a survey based on Schraw [4] was implemented to Freshman students on an introductory course to engineering and to Sophomore students studying the basics of engineering design. The aim was to see whether understanding and applying the engineering design process enhanced the students’ ability to adopt more multiple views of thinking.

[1] Royal Academy of Engineering. (2014). “Thinking like an engineer: implications for the education system.” London: Royal Academy of Engineering. [2] William Perry. (1981). "Cognitive and Ethical Growth: The Making of Meaning", in Arthur W.Chickering and Associates, The Modern American College (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass): 76-116. [3] D. R. Krathwohl, (2002). A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), 212-218. [4] Schraw, G., Bendixen, L. D., & Dunkle, M. (2002). Development and validation of the epistemic beliefs inventory. In B. K. Hofer & P. R. Pintrich (Eds.), Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 261-275). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Citation
Format

Mohammed, J., & Hatakka, M. R. H. (2016, June), Enhancing Multiple Thinking through the Engineering Design Process Paper presented at 2016 ASEE International Forum, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/1-2--27243

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The Royal Academy of Engineering [1] identified six main types of cognitive abilities that engineering students need to develop. They included systems thinking, problem-finding, visualizing, improving, creative problem-solving and adaptability [1]. All these thinking skills require the understanding of multiple views and the application of knowledge. However, most engineering students start their first year undergraduate studies believing that the right answer is either at the back of the book or what the teacher expects for an oral or written answer in the classroom or in a test. This kind of thinking is very dualistic and was already identified as the starting point for most undergraduates in the 1970s by Perry [2] in his model of intellectual development. While the students’ notion is partially true, there are also tasks, tests and assignments of a more exploratory nature, which require handling multiple views on issues, with no one right answer or solution. One such task is understanding and application of the engineering design process. Undergraduate engineering students frequently struggle with this, as it is very hard for them to understand that there is not necessarily only one correct solution. Perry’s model [2] of intellectual development also has parallels with the revised Bloom’s taxonomy (Krathwohl, 2002).  In order to investigate see whether the students’ thinking skills develop between their Freshman and Sophomore years in an English-medium engineering college in the Middle East, a survey based on Schraw [4] was implemented to Freshman students on an introductory course to engineering and to Sophomore students studying the basics of engineering design. The aim was to see whether understanding and applying the engineering design process enhanced the students’ ability to adopt more multiple views of thinking.

[1]    Royal Academy of Engineering.  (2014). “Thinking like an engineer: implications for the education system.” London: Royal Academy of Engineering. 	
[2] William Perry. (1981). &quot;Cognitive and Ethical 			Growth: The Making of Meaning&quot;, in Arthur W.Chickering and Associates, The Modern American College (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass): 76-116.
[3]    D. R. Krathwohl, (2002). A revision of Bloom&#39;s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), 212-218.
[4] Schraw, G., Bendixen, L. D., &amp; Dunkle, M. (2002). Development and validation of the epistemic beliefs inventory. In B. K. Hofer &amp; P. R. Pintrich (Eds.),
    Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 261-275). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.



AU  - Jaby Mohammed
AU  - Mary Ragnhild Hilja Hatakka
CY  - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA  - 2016/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Enhancing Multiple Thinking through the Engineering Design Process
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/27243
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--27243
ER  -