This study investigates the effects of traditional teaching and competency-based teaching on the development of managerial competencies among first-year engineering students, examining if and how those effects are moderated by individual characteristics such as achievement motivation and student engagement. The competencies examined were selfawareness, effective teamwork, leading positive change, and supportive communication. The experimental design included a control group exposed to traditional teaching methods and an experimental to competency-based, with 25 participants in each group. Instruction lasted five weeks and included four structured training sessions, with data collected pre-and post-intervention. Results revealed no significant differences between the two groups, indicating that the teaching method itself did not determine competencies development. However, student engagement showed a significant positive correlation with competencies gains, highlighting its role as a key factor in fostering managerial skill development. The study contributes empirical evidence on the conditions that support the early integration of managerial competencies in engineering education and emphasizes the importance of fostering student engagement as a driver of learning outcomes.
To achieve high-quality Internet of Things (IoT) education, Asia-Pacific countries have placed greater demands on engineering students' problem-solving abilities and innovative practices. However, the traditional approach has struggled to satisfy the needs of talent training. To this end, this paper proposes a hybrid teaching model that integrates the semi-flipped classroom and Bridge-in, Objective, Pre-assessment, Participatory learning, Post-assessment, and Summary (BOPPPS) framework. For validation, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 100 IoT engineering students, who were divided into a control group (n = 50) receiving traditional lecture-based instruction and an experimental group (n = 50) undergoing the hybrid teaching model. Data were collected through psychometrically validated satisfaction surveys (Cronbach's alpha = 0.938) and pre-test/post-test assessments across ten instructional modules. Quantitative analysis employed independent-samples t-tests and chi-square tests (significance threshold: p < 0.05). The evaluation results demonstrate that over 90% of students are satisfied with the teaching method, content design, and equipment resources. Meanwhile, the student approval rating regarding learning interest, professional ability, and classroom participation has exceeded 90%. Furthermore, the comparison of pre-test and post-test accuracy in the experimental group shows an improvement of approximately 20%, with statistically significant differences favoring the experimental group. Such impressive performances reveal that the hybrid teaching model not only enhances students' engineering innovation abilities and learning initiative but also holds significant value for improving the quality of related programs in engineering education.
Some graduate engineering students, called direct pathway students, go directly into their graduate education after completing their undergraduate degree or complete these degrees alongside one another. Other graduate engineering students, called returners, spend a significant amount of time in industry before returning to school. The focus of this study was to compare and contrast these two demographics in regard to information retention, recovery of lost information, and learning of new information. All students forget similar amounts and types of information. Retention is based in initial mindset, interest in the topic, and frequency of use; fundamental information and concepts also tend to be retained. Twenty direct pathway and twenty-one returner graduate engineering students were interviewed in person. Differences were found in how students learn new information. Returners attempt to fit information in with what they already know, whereas direct pathway students spend more time searching for applications for new information. Returners were also found to have many advantages due to their work experience, whereas direct pathway students were found to have the advantage of more flexible life circumstances.
This study examines 25 teaching evaluation policy documents issued by engineering-advantaged universities in China through a two-dimensional analytical framework integrating policy instruments and evaluation elements. The analysis reveals that existing policies are characterized by an overreliance on mandates, an imbalanced alignment of evaluation elements, and a systematic misalignment between policy instruments and evaluation elements. These features indicate a policy design logic predominantly shaped by managerialism, accountability-driven governance, and an emphasis on administrative efficiency. Therefore, the refinement of teaching evaluation policies in China's engineering education should focus on optimizing the structure of policy instruments to better balance faculty teaching autonomy and institutional constraints, improving the scientific design of evaluation elements to promote development-oriented teaching evaluation, and strengthening the alignment between policy instruments and evaluation elements to enhance the effectiveness of teaching evaluation. From a policy perspective, this study contributes to research on teaching evaluation in engineering education and offers empirically grounded insights for improving policy design in support of high-quality engineering education.
Engineering graduate students are expected to engage in creative research, yet creativity-relevant skills are often undervalued or unsupported within academic environments. While these skills can be developed outside of academia-particularly through creative hobbies-their role in graduate research has not been widely studied. This article explores how engineering graduate students perceive the ways their creative hobbies contribute to their research through transferable skills and enhance their overall graduate experience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 students from R1 engineering programs across the United States. Thematic analysis revealed that creative hobbies support students' research creativity and improve their well-being. However, most participants reported feeling little support or encouragement for maintaining a creative life balance during graduate school. These findings highlight the need for research group environments to foster a climate that supports, encourages, and values creativity beyond traditional academic boundaries. Advisors can help by recognizing students' creative strengths, encouraging engagement in creative pursuits, and celebrating the transfer of creativity-relevant skills to research.
