Author Email for Access Request

andrew.cashman@mtu.ie

Abstract

In engineering, kinematics is widely regarded as a fundamental topic with the literature agreeing that students possess a wide range in understanding of the topic. This study aims to take a second-order approach by understanding and exploring the qualitatively different ways in which students approach solving kinematics problems. Phenomenography was used to collect data through ten semi-structured interviews with early-stage mechanical engineering students. Following data analysis, four distinct categories of students’ approaches were identified; unstructured, framing the problem, strategic, and conceptual. It was found that these categories could be arranged in a hierarchy and were also supported by secondary epistemic factors in determining why students employed a particular approach. The findings emphasise the need for approaching instruction from multiple perspectives and suggest a more comprehensive learning experience can be supported by linking practical laboratory observations with real-world concepts, use of visual aids, dry labs, active and peer-to-peer learning.

Disciplines

Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Methods | Higher Education | Mechanical Engineering | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

DOI

10.1080/03043797.2022.2073200

Full Publication Date

9-5-2022

Publication Details

Published online in European Journal of Engineering Education on 9th May 2022.

© 2022 SEFI

Note: The author can be emailed for access to the pre-print, post-print and final published version of the article.

The post-print will be available to download from this site on 9th May 2023.

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Resource Type

journal article

Resource Version

http://purl.org/coar/version/c_ab4af688f83e57aa

Access Rights

open access

Open Access Route

Green Open Access

License Condition

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Deposit Statement

This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in European Journal of Engineering Education.

Cashman, A., & O’Mahony, T. (2022). Student understanding of kinematics: a qualitative assessment. European Journal of Engineering Education, 47(6), 886–909. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2022.2073200

It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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