Past Issues

JEE Selects. Research in Practice.


Student to Engineer

Portfolio-building helps crystallize a professional identity.

How do students build their identities as professional engineers while learning about the roles and responsibilities related to professional engineering practice? By what process does this identity construction occur, and how can we as educators more effectively guide it...
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Yes, Engineers Have Math Anxiety

It could be eased by more emphasis on concepts.

The harmful effects of academic anxiety on student performance have long been recognized. However, the consequences of math anxiety on engineering students are not widely studied. To what extent do engineering students suffer from math anxiety? How does it affect their performance...
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Success by Race and Gender

Sharp differences emerge after eight semesters.

While researchers in engineering education have long been interested in understanding who persists in undergraduate engineering and who migrates out, we now know that some measures produce more nuanced information than others. Persistence varies by race and gender, and how we measure persistence matters in understanding this variation...
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It Doesn't Feel Like Learning

Problem-solving instruction works but still presents challenges.

Engineers use knowledge to solve problems, so it makes sense to involve students in learning based on problem situations. Theoretically, problem-based learning (PBL) can make content relevant to students and enhance their understanding. Until now, however, research on the impact of PBL has been limited to student and faculty perceptions of this approach...
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To Advance, We Must Change

A special centennial issue explores rigor in research, diversity promotion, and integration of disciplines.

To mark 100 years of the Journal of Engineering Education, a special January issue reflects on the emergence of engineering education as a research-based discipline and explores what the future holds...
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Cost of an Engineering Major

Must students choose between practical skills and personal growth?

The demanding credit requirements of engineering may be turning away students who think that the major could limit their personal and social development. A recent study used data from the National Survey of Student Engagement to assess the undergraduate experiences of students...
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How They See Themselves

Students who identify with engineering persist in the field.

Calls for a larger and more diverse pool of engineers have prompted closer examination of student persistence in engineering programs. While previous research has examined the characteristics of students who stay in engineering versus those who leave, our study provides a different perspective, the student perspective...
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Uncovering STEM Talent

A math model shows students’ potential is evident by the eighth grade.

Five years ago, a blue-ribbon panel warned in “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” that the scientific and technical building blocks of U.S. economic leadership were eroding compared with other nations...
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Resisting Innovation

Why faculty are slow to adopt new teaching methods.

Each year, the National Science Foundation invests millions to support educational research and develop innovative instructional strategies. To what extent have these investments systemically influenced practice in engineering classrooms, and how can returns on investment be improved...
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Effective Faculty Workshops

Keep them practical, flexible, and geared to engineering.

Staff of campus teaching and learning centers frequently complain that few engineers attend their programs, and those who come often dismiss what they hear as irrelevant to engineering. On the other hand, some instructional development programs have attracted and influenced many engineering faculty members...
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What Is Our Culture?

Understanding it is key to developing ways to change it.

For more than 10 years, culture and cultural change have been spotlighted as key to systemic reform in engineering education. But how well do we, as engineering educators, understand the complex, multifaceted concept of culture and its relationship to behavior and practices...
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They Learn, but Enjoy it Less

Online students miss face-to-face communication.

Globalization means more technology, and education is no exception. International distance courses can include real-time audiovisual communication between people in different countries, something rarely feasible even 10 years ago...
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Clues to Online Learning

Students do best when monitoring themselves.

Each year, the National Science Foundation invests millions to support educational research and develop innovative instructional strategies. To what extent have these investments systemically influenced practice in engineering classrooms, and how can returns on investment be improved?
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Getting Our Stories Straight

Inspiring public messages don’t match what faculty say.

In its 2008 report “Changing the Conversation,” the National Academy of Engineering encouraged the engineering profession to present messages that appeal to young people’s desire to improve lives and make a difference in the world...
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Retention Is Not the Problem

Women aren't being drawn to engineering in the first place.

"Study Seeks to Improve Retention Among Women Engineering Students,” declares a 2008 news release announcing a grant to four universities. Countless other articles cite female retention as a grave problem. This focus on retention drives a host of strategies to increase the number of women engineers...
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The Persuasion Gap

Engineering educators may be missing the chance to influence graduates' career choices.

Do students who complete engineering majors pursue engineering-related careers? Not necessarily. Wrestling with career choices, graduates often reach impulsive and transitory decisions...
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Help Her Believe In Herself

Instructors should create a climate that dispels women’s self-doubt.

Janelle, an A student, is assured by teachers that she has what it takes to be an engineer. Although uncertain, she decides to go for it. But in her first engineering course, all the guys seem to know more than she, especially when it comes to using equipment. Her TA expresses surprise that she is not more adept...
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He Said, She Said

Gender-typical speech can sour teamwork.

A central question in engineering education is why women, despite comparatively good grades, leave engineering programs at higher rates than men. Team projects are often proposed as a solution to this attrition problem on the assumption that women will respond positively to the social interaction and cooperation that such projects promote...
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Time to Reflect

Learning specialists help point the way to better teaching.

Engineering professors’ teaching approaches are often rooted in their own experience as students. Conceptions of teaching develop over a lengthy period and are often quite resistant to change. Our study investigated whether faculty approaches to and conceptions of teaching can change as a result of collaboration between engineering faculty and learning specialists...
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Diversity Within Diversity

One-size-fits-all won’t help recruit minorities and women.

Engineering educators are well aware of the urgent need to produce more engineering graduates in the United States, but an equally important challenge is to create a more diverse pipeline of students committed to the field. That means attracting more women and under-represented minority students to major in engineering — and to pursue it as a career...
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A Way to Enhance Teaching

Instructional consultants can help, especially if they elicit student feedback.

For many engineering faculty, the desire to engage intellectually with students and make a difference in their lives provides a strong incentive to be an effective teacher. However, until recently, opportunities for faculty to improve their teaching skills have been rare...
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Why Students Lose Confidence

They measure themselves — not always accurately — against classmates.

Each fall, engineering halls across the country are flooded with first-year students, excited about learning to become engineers. Unfortunately, by the end of this first year, many of these once-eager, self-confident students decide to abandon engineering for other fields...
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What Students Can Teach Us

New findings point the way to better instruction.

Engineering design work demands a deep understanding of a client’s needs. So too, designs for engineering education require an understanding of our students — who they are, how they learn and how to reach them...
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TOPˆ

News

09 FEBRUARY 2012
Call for Papers - Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions
The Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI) invites paper or extended abstract submissions by March 1, 2012 for review for acceptance to the 10th Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology to be held in Panama City, Panama on July 23-27, 2012. The theme of the conference is "Megaprojects: Building Infrastructure by Fostering Engineering Collaboration, Efficient and Effective Integration and Innovative Planning." The refereed papers are subjected to double-blind review, the accepted papers will be published archived online, and the best pedagogical papers will be invited to submit extended versions to the LACCEI Journal on Engineering Education, indexed by LATINDEX. The Call for Papers and tracks can be found at click here. More information on the meeting can be found at click here.
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20 DECEMBER 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS - Special Issue of Journal of Engineering Education
CALL FOR PAPERS A special issue of JEE entitled “The Complexities of Transforming Engineering Higher Education” is planned for 2014. In this special issue, papers are invited that focus on strategies, models, or processes that have the potential to promote transformative, systemic improvement in engineering education. The initial deadline is March 31, 2012, for a 2000-word proposal for a full paper. For more information click here.
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28 SEPTEMBER 2011
Active Learning Workshop
Announcing a new workshop: Making the Transition to Active Learning: Selecting and Implementing Appropriate Active Learning Techniques in Engineering Courses. This workshop will provide an overview of the instructional strategies for actively engaging students in the learning process. Michael Prince, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bucknell University will lead the workshop. The workshop will be held Sunday, April 1, 2012 through Wednesday April 3, 2012 and Mississippi State University. The registration deadline is Friday, March 16, 2012.
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27 APRIL 2011
Second Seminar of Nordic Network in Engineering Education Research (NNEER)
Call for Participation, Second Seminar of Nordic Network in Engineering Education Research (NNEER), Mustion Linna, Finland, 25-27 May, 2011 The goals of the seminar include identifying joint research questions, which could be tackled in international collaboration and/or with different methodological approaches, so that the strengths of different research groups or individual researchers could support each other. We also aim to discuss how we could jointly support research training and Ph.D. work instruction in the area.
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12 JANUARY 2011
2011 Research in Engineering Education Symposium (REES)
The 2011 Research in Engineering Education Symposium to be held October 4 - 7, 2011 in Madrid, Spain. The call for papers is available and an extension of the deadline is anticipated. This is the continuation of the series previously held as ICREE in Honolulu (USA) and REES in Davos (Switzerland) and Palm Cove (Australia). In contrast with many other engineering education conferences, this meeting promotes extended discussion of a smaller number of research works in progress.
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13 DECEMBER 2010
The Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE)
The Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE), located at the University of Washington, and the largest engineering education research center funded by NSF to date ($12 million over 6 years), released its final report.
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Partners

Partners

The Journal of Engineering Education (JEE) is a peer-reviewed international journal published quarterly by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in partnership with a global community of engineering education societies and associations.

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