Explore the vast range of titles available.

With recent calls for expanding the scope and rigor of engineering education research, use of qualitative methods to answer research questions that can not be answered through quantitative methods is taking on increasing significance. Well‐designed qualitative studies often build on epistemological consistency across theoretical perspectives, research questions, and research methods. We examine recent articles published in the Journal of Engineering Education to determine the overall prevalence of qualitative articles and the extent to which they appear epistemologically and methodologically consistent with the goals of qualitative inquiry. We find that there are very few qualitative articles published, and even fewer which show epistemological consistency across different aspects of the research design. These issues may limit the rich, descriptive information that could be gained from qualitative inquiry, limiting the contributions qualitative studies could make to engineering education. We call on researchers to expand their use of qualitative methods and to design their studies with careful attention to epistemological consistency across the design.

The purpose of this research review is to open dialog about quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methods in engineering education research. Our position is that no particular method is privileged over any other. Rather, the choice must be driven by the research questions. For each approach we offer a definition, aims, appropriate research questions, evaluation criteria, and examples from the Journal of Engineering Education. Then, we present empirical results from a prestigious international conference on engineering education research. Participants expressed disappointment in the low representation of qualitative studies; nonetheless, there appeared to be a strong preference for quantitative methods, particularly classroom‐based experiments. Given the wide variety of issues still to be explored within engineering education, we expect that quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches will be essential in the future. We encourage readers to further investigate alternate research methods by accessing some of our sources and collaborating across education/social science and engineering disciplinary boundaries.

Furthermore, the new variety of qualitative research emerging from engineering education research groups can fall in betwixt and between - with reviewers from neither social science nor engineering domains recognizing what they see as quality and hence rejecting the work. (1999) help us to understand what factors affect students' abilities to create designs that experts within the dominant discourse would recognize as high quality; Nieusma (2004) questions the notion of designing within the dominant paradigm; Bucciarelli (1988) and Kittieson and Southerland (2004) provide perspectives on how the social interactions in a design team act to affect the outcomes of the design process; and Daly, Adams, and Bodner (2012) provide us a means to understand the multitude of ways in which design is practiced and thereby to enhance the approaches that are more holistic and inclusive.

Background Textbooks play an important role in engineering education, influencing instructors' pedagogical approaches and providing much of the information students learn. Research has explored students' recollections of the roles that textbooks played in their educational experiences, but how students actually use textbooks remains largely unexplored. Purpose This phenomenological study describes engineering students' textbook use during problem‐solving activities. This study directly examined how students employed a textbook in order to generate detailed descriptions of students' behaviors, approaches, and reflections regarding their actual problem‐solving experiences. Method Ten senior materials engineering students (8 males and 2 females) were asked to think aloud while solving engineering problems. Follow‐up retrospective interviews regarding the think aloud session were conducted to gain in‐depth information on students' textbook use during the problem‐solving activities. Results Students used the textbook primarily to find information related to problem constraints that were explicitly stated in the problem. Furthermore, textbook example problems exerted a strong influence on students' problem‐solving processes. Students also reported limitations of the textbook, contrasting it to the diversity of resources available via the Internet. Conclusions This study provides insight into students' textbook use during engineering problem‐solving activities. Students' limited application of the textbook during problem solving suggests that textbooks may not be serving their intended purposes.

Recently, the Navajo Nation has shown much interest in promoting engineering education within the community. Capitalizing on the Diné's history and strength in making, one initiative toward this goal has been the development of makerspaces. While these makerspaces show promise and are a great resource to the Navajo Nation, they resemble Western understandings of makerspaces and have not incorporated the unique cultural identity of the Diné into the design of the space, limiting their potential. To better support this initiative, this study looks to answer the following research question: How can the Navajo experience of making be integrated to design a culturally contextualized makerspace? The results include four design considerations to help guide the design of a makerspace for the Diné: inclusivity, individualism, community building, and cultural conflicts and connections. This article also presents one interpretation of a culturally contextualized Diné makerspace.

Socially constructed identities and language practices influence the ways students perceive themselves as learners, problem solvers, and future professionals. While research has been conducted on individuals’ identity as engineers, less has been written about how the language used during engineering problem solving influences students’ perceptions and their construction of identities as learners and future engineers. This study investigated engineering students’ identities as reflected in their use of language and discourses while engaged in an engineering problem solving activity. We conducted interviews with eight engineering students at a large southeastern university about their approaches to open and closed-ended materials engineering problems. A modification of Gee’s analysis of language-in-use was used to analyze the interviews. We found that pedagogical and engineering problem solving uses of language were the most common. Participants were more likely to perceive themselves as students highlighting the practices, expectations, and language associated with being a student rather than as emerging engineers whose practices are affected by conditions of professional practice. We suggest that problem solving in an academic setting may not encourage students to consider alternative discourses related to industry, professionalism, or creativity; and, consequently, fail to promote connections to social worlds beyond the classroom. By learning about the ways in which language in particular settings produces identities and shapes problem solving practices, educators and engineering professionals can gain deeper understanding of how language shapes the ways students describe themselves as problem-solvers and make decisions about procedures and techniques to solve engineering problems.

Solving problems that are complex and illstructured is a central activity of engineering practice. Graduates of engineering programs accredited by ABET are expected to be able to solve problems requiring consideration of realistic constraints, including: economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability. Although various kinds of beliefs, such as self-efficacy (belief in one's abilities) and epistemic beliefs (beliefs about the nature of knowledge), have been found to play a role in one's problem-solving abilities, people felt that it was important to examine more broadly the beliefs and assumptions that engineering students hold about problem solving within the context of an engineering curriculum. The authors conducted interviews with 19 junior and senior materials engineering students following a problem-solving task.

The liquid crystalline thermoset monomers 4,4′‐diglycidyloxy‐α‐methylstilbene (DOMS) and D2A1 that resulted from the reaction between DOMS and aniline were synthesized. DOMS was cured with sulfanilamide and D2A1 was cured with catalytic curing agent 1‐methyl imidazole. Transition diagrams have been constructed and the percent conversion data were determined from dynamic differential scanning calorimetry scan to examine the applicability of Flory's gelation theory. The results reveal that even though the amount of reaction that occurs in the liquid crystalline phase is different at different cure temperatures, the isoconversion theory of gelation fits quite well. POLYM. ENG. SCI. 46:623–629, 2006. © 2006 Society of Plastics Engineers

We demonstrate control over the orientation of the 4,4′‐bis(2,3‐epoxypropoxy)‐α‐methylstilbene (EPAMS)/sulfanilamide (SAA) epoxy system. A statistical experimental design was generated and analyzed to determine the effects of the time in the magnetic field, field strength, and the amount of B‐staging. A regression model with a coefficient of determination, R2, of 0.8577 was calculated to predict the orientation parameter for the input variables. An optimization study was also conducted to check the prediction of the orientation parameters by the model. The model can predict the experimentally measured orientation in regions where the model predicts physically realistic values for the orientation.