Science AI Journal
Engineering · Research topic

Open research questions in Engineering Education and Pedagogy

45 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 2,017 Engineering Education and Pedagogy papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Future research should consider a longer implementation period, as Capobianco et al. Future research may address this limitation by adopting mixed-methods designs that integrate systematically analyzed rubric scores and additional quantitative measures alongside qualitative analyses. Future research may address this limitation by incorporating analytic rubrics, design journals, or mixed-methods approaches to more closely examine the development of iterative engineering design thinking. One limitation of this study is that, although rubric-based evaluations of the developed products were included, these data were used descriptively and were not subjected to statistical analysis. A further limitation of this study is that the depth and quality of the participants‘ redesign processes were not systematically evaluated. Another limitation of this study concerns the author‘s role as a researcher–practitioner. One last limitation of this study is that the instructional process was guided by an engineering design model rather than a comprehensive instructional design framework.

    Exploring preservice primary teachers' understanding of the engineering design process through integrated STEM laboratory activities · 2026 · DOI

  • Future Research Based on the outcomes of this study, several avenues for future research are recommended. 1. Scaling across contexts: Replication across multiple universities, including both well-resourced and under-resourced institutions, would test the scalability and adaptability of scaffolding within PBL. 2. Longitudinal studies: Future research should track student cohorts beyond a single module to examine whether concept scaffolding-supported PBL fosters long-term retention, progression into advanced modules, and preparedness for professional practice. 3. Extension to other physics domains: Investigating whether scaffolding within PBL improves learning in topics beyond mechanics, such as electromagnetism or quantum physics, would test the broader applicability of the approach. 4. Technology-enhanced scaffolding: With increasing reliance on digital learning environments, research should explore how adaptive technologies, virtual simulations, or artificial intelligence tutors can expand the reach and impact of scaffolding. 5. Equity-focused studies: Given South Africa’s diverse student demographics, future work should specifically investigate how scaffolding impacts students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Such research could provide evidence for policy interventions aimed at improving equity and inclusion in STEM. 6. Instructor perspectives: Finally, examining how instructors design, implement, and adapt concept scaffolding within PBL would provide insights into professional development needs and institutional support structures required for scaling. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that embedding concept scaffolding within a PBL framework is highly effective in fostering conceptual mastery, engagement, confidence and the transfer of physics knowledge to applied engineering contexts. Quantitative and qualitative findings converge to show that students not only improved their problem-solving performance but also gained confidence, motivation, and the ability to articulate design rationales. By embedding guided inquiry, simulations, collaboration, and feedback, students effectively bridged theoretical understanding with real-world engineering applications. These findings affirm international evidence that scaffolding reduces misconceptions and fosters transferable knowledge while addressing South African priorities of equity and epistemological access. Ultimately, scaffolding- supported PBL emerges as a scalable, contextually responsive strategy for advancing foundational STEM education. The broader implications are clear as concept scaffolding-supported PBL offers a scalable, equitable, and contextually relevant strategy for advancing foundational STEM education, particularly in engineering-focused physics. By combining authentic problem-solving with structured supports, the approach addresses cognitive, affective, and social dimensions of learning simultaneously. 53 Kirschner et al., “Why Minimal Guidance during Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist.” Journal of Education and Learning Technology (JELT) 178 Bibin, M. G. / Journal of Education and Learning Technology / Vol.7 No.1 (2026) pp 166 - 181 Although the scope was limited, its findings provide valuable insights to both international and South African debates on effective pedagogy in STEM. With further research to scale and refine the approach, scaffolding within PBL holds the potential to transform first-year physics education into an inclusive, engaging, and professionally relevant foundation for engineering students.

    Concept scaffolding in problem-based learning: Enhancing conceptual understanding of circular motion in a first-year physics module for engineering students · 2026 · DOI

  • Based on the outcomes of this study, several avenues for future research are recommended. 1. Scaling across contexts: Replication across multiple universities, including both well-resourced and under-resourced institutions, would test the scalability and adaptability of scaffolding within PBL. 2. Longitudinal studies: Future research should track student cohorts beyond a single module to examine whether concept scaffolding-supported PBL fosters long-term retention, progression into advanced modules, and preparedness for professional practice. 3. Extension to other physics domains: Investigating whether scaffolding within PBL improves learning in topics beyond mechanics, such as electromagnetism or quantum physics, would test the broader applicability of the approach. 4. Technology-enhanced scaffolding: With increasing reliance on digital learning environments, research should explore how adaptive technologies, virtual simulations, or artificial intelligence tutors can expand the reach and impact of scaffolding. 5. Equity-focused studies: Given South Africa’s diverse student demographics, future work should specifically investigate how scaffolding impacts students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Such research could provide evidence for policy interventions aimed at improving equity and inclusion in STEM. 6. Instructor perspectives: Finally, examining how instructors design, implement, and adapt concept scaffolding within PBL would provide insights into professional development needs and institutional support structures required for scaling. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that embedding concept scaffolding within a PBL framework is highly effective in fostering conceptual mastery, engagement, confidence and the transfer of physics knowledge to applied engineering contexts. Quantitative and qualitative findings converge to show that students not only improved their problem-solving performance but also gained confidence, motivation, and the ability to articulate design rationales. By embedding guided inquiry, simulations, collaboration, and feedback, students effectively bridged theoretical understanding with real-world engineering applications. These findings affirm international evidence that scaffolding reduces misconceptions and fosters transferable knowledge while addressing South African priorities of equity and epistemological access. Ultimately, scaffolding- supported PBL emerges as a scalable, contextually responsive strategy for advancing foundational STEM education. The broader implications are clear as concept scaffolding-supported PBL offers a scalable, equitable, and contextually relevant strategy for advancing foundational STEM education, particularly in engineering-focused physics. By combining authentic problem-solving with structured supports, the approach addresses cognitive, affective, and social dimensions of learning simultaneously. 53 Kirschner et al., “Why Minimal Guidance during Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist.” Journal of Education and Learning Technology (JELT) 178 Bibin, M. G. / Journal of Education and Learning Technology / Vol.7 No.1 (2026) pp 166 - 181 Although the scope was limited, its findings provide valuable insights to both international and South African debates on effective pedagogy in STEM. With further research to scale and refine the approach, scaffolding within PBL holds the potential to transform first-year physics education into an inclusive, engaging, and professionally relevant foundation for engineering students.

    Concept scaffolding in problem-based learning: Enhancing conceptual understanding of circular motion in a first-year physics module for engineering students · 2026 · DOI

  • This study can contribute to the scarce literature about the interdisciplinary integration of 3D printing technology in STEAM education, promoting awareness of the overlaps in these disciplines and a more equitable disciplinary attention.

    The use of Tinkercad and 3D printing in interdisciplinary STEAM education: A focus on engineering design · 2024 · DOI

  • These standards sound good, but they beg several questions; namely, what do we know about how, why, and when do engineers read and write as they do their work every day? What do teachers charged with engineering education know about the daily practices of engineers, let alone the literacy practices? In short, little is known about the literacy practices of engineers in the course of their daily work.

    Learning from the Professions: Examining How, Why, and When Engineers Read and Write · 2017 · DOI

  • Because the effectiveness of reaching pedagogical goals with virtual training was demonstrated, it was concluded that the developed software could be substituted for field practice, offering a viable alternative in situations where there are insufficient economic resources for the teaching of topographic surveying.

    Developing Topographic Surveying Software to Train Civil Engineers · 2016 · DOI

  • We discuss our findings by using them to highlight ways in which engineering educators are already thinking effectively, to suggest how the adoption of innovation and professional problem‐solving can serve as promising frameworks for thinking about teaching activity, and to suggest that additional research on engineering teaching take advantage of distributed cognition models to truly understand how our students are taught.

    Investigating the Teaching Concerns of Engineering Educators · 2007 · DOI

  • A package of learning materials, including an open-ended mathematical CAL (computer-aided learning) package, was used to support students whose ability, ambitions and subsequent programmes vary widely.

    Strategies for Teaching Mixed-Attainment Groups in Engineering Education · 2000 · DOI

  • The Liverpool Mechanics' Institution (or Liver- pool Institute as it was later known) created a range of educational provision which was scarcely equalled elsewhere, certainly not in Liverpool it- self. That hopes were not fulfilled at all points is scarcely to be wondered at for institu- tions such as the University College with objectives far more limited were fortunate in surviving their early difficult years.

    Approaches to technical education in nineteenth-century England: Part IV. The Liverpool Mechanics' Institution · 1973 · DOI

  • Further research is needed both to offer a way of differentiating among possible explanations for the present results and to provide improvements in the existing formal methods for eliciting bipolar constructs. These results are limited, however, to the specific characteristic of bipolarity.

    AN EVALUATION OF ELICITATION PROCEDURES FOR PERSONAL CONSTRUCTS · 1971 · DOI

  • Although the findings are promising, it remains uncertain whether similar scaffolding strategies would be equally effective in other domains, such as electromagnetism or thermodynamics.

    Concept scaffolding in problem-based learning: Enhancing conceptual understanding of circular motion in a first-year physics module for engineering students · 2026 · DOI

  • However, little is known as to the most effective sequence of delivery : is it better to begin with theory and build up to practice or vice versa? Here, we present the idea of testing this through a carefully designed pedagogical experiment.

    Practice before theory? An approach for testing sequencing effects in pedagogical design · 2020 · DOI

  • The paper discusses how entrepreneurial engineering pedagogy is anchored in entrepreneurship education and engineering education discourse, and suggests means through which the two disparate streams of research can be integrated in order to further research on entrepreneurial engineering pedagogy.

    Entrepreneurial engineering pedagogy: models, tradeoffs and discourses · 2019 · DOI

  • Still, there are only few examples of assessment tasksdesigned to deliberately assess this attribute in engineering education, and little is known about how to develop crediblescoring rubrics that can assess integrated understanding promoted by specific interdisciplinary courses.

    Development of scoring rubric for evaluating integrated understanding in an undergraduate biologically-inspired design course · 2016

  • The use of digital homework in upper-level engineering courses is sparsely documented in the literature but can provide homework assignments that give immediate feedback for self-assessment of learning while significantly reducing the time required of the instructor for grading.

    Digital homework for kinematics and dynamics of machinery · 2016 · DOI

  • Part of their complaints are related with the inability of recently graduate engineers to work in problems where the boundaries are not well defined, are interdisciplinary, require the use of effective communication and integrate non-technical issues.

    Teaching design in the first years of a traditional mechanical engineering degree: methods, issues and future perspectives · 2014 · DOI

  • While the objective is to teach design so that students learn both engineering processes and content knowledge, the open question remains: to what extent can freshman engineering students learn to do design? To date, few studies have actually assessed acquisition of design skills.

    Freshman engineers' performance when solving design problems · 1999 · DOI

  • Abstract An elective laboratory course has been developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to motivate freshmen for further study of engineering in general and to spur interest in electrical and computer engineering in particular.

    A Motivational First‐year Electronics Lab Course · 1997 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Engineering Education and Pedagogy

Most recent work

Find a gap in your own Engineering Education and Pedagogy sub-topic

This page shows what the Engineering Education and Pedagogy literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, run the guided finder — it searches the gap library on demand and checks candidates against 250M+ OpenAlex works.

Open the Research Gap Finder →

Related topics in Engineering

Traffic and Road Safety
143 open questions
Spatial Cognition and Navigation
95 open questions
Smart Cities and Technologies
89 open questions
BIM and Construction Integration
87 open questions
Design Education and Practice
86 open questions
Engineering Education and Curriculum Development
82 open questions
Digital Transformation in Industry
81 open questions
Perovskite Materials and Applications
78 open questions
45 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 2,017 Engineering Education and Pedagogy papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

Tools for your next paper

Gaps & Literature SearchFind open questions in any field — 120,000+ open gaps mined from our own library.Pre-CheckIs your paper ready? A Tier 1–5 acceptance probability in seconds.Journal FinderA ranked shortlist of target journals from a 17,500-venue index.Duplicate Publication CheckerCheck prior-publication & salami-slicing risk across 8 sources.Citation GeneratorFreeA DOI or title → APA, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS. No signup.Graphical Abstract MakerFreeTurn your findings into a colorblind-safe graphical abstract.

Compare the category — Honest roundups of the AI research tools, ours listed alongside the alternatives.

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.