Perception of complex engineering problem solving among engineering educators

Abstract

According to the Washington Accord, skills to solve complex problems in engineering are important in the curriculum of engineering education. To fulfill the accreditation exercise, engineering educators must be able to design complex engineering problems to assess the learning of this important skill. Therefore, this research was conducted to explore what do engineering educators perceived as complex engineering problems and how did they design these problems in order to foster the skills among their students. A focus group discussion was conducted among 12 engineering educators. The audio recording was transcribed and analysed qualitatively. The result shows that only one engineering educator understands complex engineering problems and most of the attributes. The other were not able to tell more than three of the complex engineering problem attributes. As a conclusion, training on the attributes of complex engineering problems is needed to ensure that the teaching and learning of engineering programmes fulfill the accreditation criteria.