Engineering design involves problem-framing as well as problem-solving because the problems faced by engineers are ill-structured and can be represented in multiple ways. Also, a design situation calling for an engineering solution requires engineers to recognize not only technical also non-technical goals and constraints and the interactions between the variables with a broad range of perspectives. However, examining P-12 engineering design cognitive processes, multiple studies have indicated a lack of students’ cognitive effort to analyze a given design scenario and to structure and formulate a design problem in any effective or efficient ways. Also, students tend to fail in identifying multiple, conflicting goals and constraints in a given design scenario. In the meantime, the characteristics of entrepreneurial engineers’ thinking and actions (Kriewall & Mekemson, 2010) imply the possibility of improving P-12 students’ problem framing through teaching an entrepreneurial mindset in engineering design contexts. Therefore, this paper aims at getting P-12 engineering education educators engaged in the discussion about the effectiveness of teaching entrepreneurial skills and thinking in engineering design contexts in terms of its influence on students’ cognitive ability in problem framing. As part of the effort, in this work-in-progress paper, we discuss the importance of problem framing in engineering design and then identify P-12 students’ lack of ability in problem framing through presenting the data of elementary and secondary students’ cognitive processes for an engineering design task. Also, we suggest an instructional idea for improving students’ problem framing, which is providing P-12 students with the opportunities to learn an entrepreneurial mindset through a multidisciplinary design and innovation course. Lastly, we will propose a qualitative case study to examine how their learning of entrepreneurial mindset impact on their cognitive activities in problem framing.
Dr. Greg J. Strimel is an assistant professor of engineering/technology teacher education in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. His prior teaching experience includes serving as a high school engineering/technology teacher and a teaching assistant professor within the College of Engineering & Mineral Resources at West Virginia University.
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.
