Professor Talk in Undergraduate, Introductory Design: A Multiple Case Study from Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering

Background: Introductory design projects are an influential and important time to introduce students to engineering in authentic and engaging ways in order to prepare students for their future academic and professional careers. Instructors must be able to scaffold their students to reach more advanced design skills. However, the most effective ways to do this, specifically how instructors use their talk with students, are not well understood. Purpose: We aim to address the research question: How do instructors interact with students and use their talk as a tool to scaffold undergraduate students’ learning during their work on engineering design projects in introductory engineering courses? Design: We employed a multiple case study approach to examine the content of three professors’ talk during introductory engineering design projects, guided by a theoretical framework based on the components of scaffolding. Results: The professors took on a role as a guide or mentor to students during their projects, with differing goals for their mentoring. In light of the introductory nature of the design projects, the professors focused primarily on non-technical content, including iteration in design, teaming, and communication, but pointed to technical applications of their ideas in future projects. They supported some challenges for beginning designers but were not comprehensive in their support of others. Conclusions: The professors in this study are experienced engineers and teachers with valuable experience. They used their experience to act as more knowledgeable others to mentor students and excite them about their engineering careers. However, there were some disconnects between the professors’ values in design and their talk with students, such as in learning from failure and problem scoping. These findings support the need for support for instructors, specifically in how to more closely align their talk with their teaching goals.