Journal of Civil Engineering Education

Due to globalization trends, engineers are increasingly expected to work effectively across national and cultural boundaries. However, there remains a lack of valid and reliable measures of global engineering competency. To address this gap, the research team has undertaken a large-scale research project to develop a suite of instruments to measure global engineering competency (GEC), including self-reported scales and situational judgment tests. This study reports on the development and initial validation of one such instrument, the Global Engineering Competency Scale (GECS). The GECS was administered to 400 practicing engineers, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in sequence to further develop and evaluate the instrument. The results provide evidence of the construct validity of the GECS to measure two distinct dimensions of GEC: behavioral and cognitive competencies. In addition to describing some possible uses for this assessment tool, the need for further research to collect additional evidence regarding the validity and reliability of the instrument is also discussed.

The heart of engineering lies in problem solving. Critical thinking and mathematical thinking are inexorably linked and indispensable in complex engineering problem solving. However, the preparedness of prospective engineers in terms of having the required skills to face future challenges in the engineering workplace is still questionable and worrisome. Therefore, a study to understand the application of these two types of thinking in professional engineering practice is urgently crucial. This study focuses on having insight into the interrelation and interaction among pertinent elements of critical thinking and mathematical thinking used by engineers in professional civil engineering design practice, in the form of a substantive theory. This paper presents qualitative research using a modified grounded-theory method. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight informants from engineering firms through theoretical sampling. Data were analyzed using modified grounded-theory analysis with analytic tools to interrelate the inductive codes, which contrasts with the more usual grounded-theory analysis. The substantive theory, named math-related critical thinking, explains six essential processes used in professional engineering design for justifying decisions reasonably. The substantive theory provides useful information for prospective engineers and engineering education, along with some implications for designing engineering curricula.

Improving the ethical thinking and analysis of university students is becoming an essential goal of modern curricula and program designers in various disciplines. To support ethics learning via practical applications and decision-making scenarios, ethics instructors are adding innovative methods to their multidisciplinary courses by following creative teaching practices and including diverse activities inside and outside the classroom. In this paper, a review of activities that promote ethics learning and engagement of undergraduate students is presented as a guide to devise a comprehensive framework for applying and promoting ethics. Ethics centers are also introduced as well-organized hubs that plan, organize, and host activities to support ethics teaching and enhance student intellectual growth and community services. The paper is enriched with numerous examples of activities and strategies for instructors and incentives for students extracted from an intensive review conducted on more than 60 ethics centers and 40 syllabi of ethics courses offered in international colleges and universities.

Universities are facing many challenges with growing student numbers and a need to modify the traditional lecture and tutorial–based face-to-face pedagogical style both for students who work full-time while studying and for international students who may have language difficulties. To address these challenges, a flipped classroom pedagogical model was trialled in a second-year module in a Construction Management undergraduate degree program. The model consisted of preclass online quizzes, in-class face-to-face lectures, group tasks, active learning spaces, adaptive online tutorials and a case-based assessment. Evaluation findings suggest that preclass activities are an important feature of a flipped classroom to actively engage students in independent learning and to help them construct their own knowledge. Findings also highlight the significance of physical space to facilitate collaboration and interactions between students, improve their learning experience, and inspire students to learn in an active environment. The findings have implications for both educational developers and academics to support the development of open, online, and blended learning courses and to deploy, implement, and evaluate higher education courses.

The responsibilities of civil engineers are not limited to technical practices. The responsibility borne by employers and senior members of the profession to uphold ethical behavior in their personal lives cannot be overstated. As the use of social media progressively grows and becomes more prevalent, its penetration into civil engineering is inevitable. Recently, research focusing on the ethical conduct of civil engineers has amassed attention. The present research proposes a two-level, case-based discussion and analysis of comments on a case study using popular social media platforms; and a questionnaire survey exploring the involvement of professional civil engineers in social media discussions. This paper reveals that the convenience and efficiency of social media implores civil engineers to follow the ASCE Code of Ethics to improve the moral standards of the profession.

This case study aims to investigate the extent to which the teaching mode called flipped classroom is effective in enabling students to learn fundamental concepts in cost engineering. It adopted a repeated measure design and statistical evaluation to examine the learning approaches that enabled students to master fundamental concepts. It also identified the teaching modes that are effective in helping students to understand and apply fundamental concepts in solving cost engineering problems. The flipped classroom involved students learning one fundamental concept (TC1) via preclass online video clips in their own time, followed by in-class discussion, and applying the fundamental concept in solving problems in a face-to-face (F2F) tutorial setting. Thereafter, they were tested for their mastery of TC1. As a comparison, the same students were taught another fundamental concept (TC2) via the traditional F2F lecture and tutorial settings. The study was repeated in the following academic year, with the teaching methods for TC1 and TC2 switched. The data collected included presurveys and postsurveys of perceived learning approaches, pretests and post-tests, and final examination results. This case study found that students achieve mastery (measured by final examination marks) of fundamental concepts regardless of whether the teaching mode is traditional lectures or flipped classroom. When students adopted a more surface-motive learning approach, they also performed significantly more poorly, regardless of teaching mode. Students who adopted a more deep-strategy learning approach when taught in flipped classroom mode performed better in final assessment. The finding is important because it reveals that the flipped classroom is just as effective as the traditional classroom in helping students to master certain cost engineering fundamental concepts. It is recommended that instructors consider using the flipped classroom to harness technology in education. Students are advised not to adopt surface learning approaches because these are detrimental to their mastery of cost engineering concepts.