The Common Skills of Problem Solving: From Program Development to Engineering Design

International Journal of Engineering Education

Volumn 19, Issue 6, 2003, Pages 810-817

  Kimmel, Shari J ^a   Kimmel, Howard S ^b   Deek, Fadi P ^b  

^a LEHIGH UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENGINEERING DESIGN; PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT;

COMPUTER SCIENCE; CONSTRAINT THEORY; CURRICULA; HEURISTIC METHODS; PLANNING; PROBLEM SOLVING; PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS; REAL TIME SYSTEMS; STUDENTS; TEACHING; TEXTBOOKS;

ENGINEERING EDUCATION;

EID: 0347566051     PISSN: 0949149X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. A. Rugarcia, R. M. Felder, D. R. Woods, and J. E. Stice, The future of engineering education, I: A vision for a new century, Chemical Engineering Education, 34(1), 2000, pp. 16-25.
2. S. J. Kimmel, F. P. Deek, and H. S. Kimmel, Applying problem-solving heuristics to a freshman engineering course, Proc. 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM, June 24-27, 2001, in press.
3. Charles E. Wales, and A. H. Nardi, Do your students think or do they memorize? Eng. Educ., 78(7), 1988, pp. 682-688.
4. J. D. Burton, and D. M. White, Selecting a model for freshman engineering design, J. Eng. Educ., 88(3), 1999, pp. 327-332.
5. D. R. Woods, R. M. Felder, A. Rugarcia, and J. E. Stice, The future of engineering education, III: developing critical skills, Chem. Eng. Educ., 34(2), 2000, pp. 108-117.
6. G. W. Ernst, and A. Newell, GPS: A Case Study in Generality and Problem Solving, Academic Press, NY, 1969.
7. A. Newell, and H. A. Simon, Human Problem Solving, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1972.
8. R. E. Mayer, Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition, W. H. Freeman and Company, NY, 1983.
9. B. F. Skinner, An operant analysis of problem solving, in B.F. Skinner (ed.), Problem Solving: Research, Method, and Theory, John Wiley and Sons, NY, 1966.
10. H. A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1969).
11. J. Piaget, Genetic Epistemology, Columbia University Press, NY (1970).
12. M. Rubinstein, Patterns of Problem Solving, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1975).
13. H. A. Simon, Information-processing theory of human problem solving, in W. K. Estes (Ed.), Handbook of Learning and Cognitive Processes, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ (1978).
14. J. G. Greeno, Natures of problem-solving abilities, in W. K. Estes (ed.), Handbook of Learning and Cognitive Processes, Vol. 5, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1978, pp. 239-270.
15. J. G. Greeno, A.M. Collins, and L. B. Resnick, Cognition and learning, in D. C. Berliner and R. C. Calfee (eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology, Simon & Schuster Macmillan, NY (1996) pp. 15-45.
16. G. Polya, How to Solve It, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ (1945).
17. G. F. Wetzel, and W. G. Bulgren, The Algorithmic Process: An Introduction to Problem Solving, The SRA Computer Science Series, Chicago, IL (1985).
18. E. Dijkstra, A Discipline of Programming, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1976).
19. N. Wirth, Program development by stepwise refinement, Communications of the ACM, 14(4), 1971, pp. 221-227.
20. F. P. Deek, An Integrated Environment for Problem Solving and Program Development, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, New Jersey Institute of Technology. Newark NJ, 1997.
21. F. P. Deek, H. Kimmel and J. McHugh, Pedagogical changes in the delivery of the first course in computer science: problem solving then programming, J. Eng. Educ., 87(3), 1998, pp. 313-320.
22. F. P. Deek, M. Turoff and J. McHugh, A common model for problem solving and program development, J. IEEE Trans. Educ., 42(4), 1999, pp. 331-336.
23. J. A. Stuart, A method for teaching problem assessment, Proc. 1997 Frontiers in Education Conf., Pittsburgh, PA, November 5-8, 1997, pp. 83-87.
24. D. R. Woods, C. M. Crowe, W. T Hoffman, and J. D. Wright, Major challenges to teaching problem-solving skills, Eng. Educ., 70(3), 1979, pp. 277-284.
25. URL of problem statement: http://www.ecsel.psu.edu/̃dhushy/EDG100/fa98_s1/design2.html. The actual problem statement given was modified to eliminate the requirement of a prototype and the mention of primary source information, due to constraints at the campus.
26. F. P. Deek, S. R Hiltz, H. Kimmel, and N. Rotter, Cognitive assessment of students' problem solving and program development skills, J. Eng. Educ., 88(3), 1999, pp. 317-326.
27. J. Degaspari, Out of Harm's Way, Mechanical Engineering, 122(12), 2000, pp. 52-55.