Knowing how students approach learning in higher education contexts is key to promote learning strategies that are effective in the long run. Previous research has concluded that students often use ineffective learning strategies but believe them to be effective--a phenomenon known as metacognitive illusion. In a bid to broaden the perspective on…

An increasingly desired outcome of engineering education is the ability to engage in self-regulated learning (SRL). One promising method for the formative assessment of SRL is the reflective diary. There is, however, a paucity of research on the use of reflective diaries in engineering education. To mitigate this gap, we report on a case study…

How do engineering students approach mathematical modelling problems and how can they learn to deal with such problems? In the context of a course in mathematical modelling and problem solving, and using a qualitative case study approach, we found that the students had little prior experience of mathematical modelling. They were also inexperienced…