EVALUATION OF STUDENTS STRATEGIES FOR CONCEPT APPLICATION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN

The article presents the results of an educational experiment in evaluating the strategies and 'microstructure' of student thinking in the application of domain specific concepts in engineering design at the University of Melbourne. This work is related to previously reported propositions in educational theory. It is found from the Melboume experience that the compartmentalized domain specificity of engineering science learning, and by corollary the learning programmes in secondary schools, adversely affect the robustness of concept formation in engineering design. It is also conjectured that fluency in concept use as well as flexibility in crossing boundaries of knowledge domains is an essential trait of effective engineering designers. © 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers.