Bettina Dahl

This chapter advances a systems approach to transferable skills in engineering education, using Aalborg University’s project-organised problem-based learning (PBL) model as a central case. It highlights key competencies — complex problem solving, project management, leadership, collaboration, co-creation, interdisciplinarity, and professional identity, and professional agency — as essential for addressing contemporary challenges. Drawing on three decades of research, the chapter shows how these skills can be cultivated through authentic problems, project work, and teamwork. Each competency is defined, grounded in theory and empirical evidence, and illustrated with examples from practice, along with typical challenges and practical guidance for educators. Together, the chapter argues that PBL supports progressive, authentic, and reflective competency development. It concludes with research-informed recommendations for embedding transferable skills in engineering programmes, emphasising constructive alignment, scaffolding, interdisciplinarity, psychological safety, and real-world engagement to prepare adaptable, collaborative, and agentic engineers.

This Special Issue focuses on the role of mathematics in engineering education

Research highlights the benefits of Problem- and Project-Based Learning (PBL) for engineering education, but students face challenges with some of its pedagogical features. This pilot study uses Q-methodology to explore first-year engineering (FYE) students’ learning challenges in a PBL environment. Based on literature, feedback from PBL experts, the University Student Counselling and Well-being unit, and students, 39 Q- statements was developed regarding different pedagogical challenges of students in PBL. Rather than simply identifying challenges, this study aims to identify the most predominant ones. Q-methodology is appropriate because participants rank statements in relation to each other, instead of rating individual statements. Our Q sorting question therefore asks FYE students to rank pedagogical features of PBL from most to least significant in terms of perceived challenge in relation to learning. To pilot the Q, we consulted two experts in PBL and Q-methodology and subsequently let 5 FYE students do the sorting activity. The results of this pilot are informative in themselves in further developing the tool. In the long term, this study is anticipated to provide knowledge about how students struggle with PBL which will help universities become aware of and remedy the situation.

Students at Danish vocational schools often struggle with learning mathematics and finding it relevant. In response to this, the project KLUMP (“competence lifting of mathematics teachers at vocational schools”) offered professional development of mathematics teachers and craft teachers through facilitating collaboration on creating teaching materials bridging mathematics and the craft. Five teams were established consisting of one mathematics and one craft teacher in the following areas: carpenter, blacksmith, mason, mechanics, and electrician. The teachers joined KLUMP voluntarily, and the school management supported KLUMP by coordinating time schedules and joining project seminars. The teachers selected relevant topics, where they developed, tested, evaluated, and refined their teaching material. The teachers received inspiration in workshops on, e.g. emergent modelling, inquiry- and problem-based learning, and concepts such as self-efficacy. A central theme is Jaworski’s notion about learning communities. KLUMP found that the frameworks of a “bridge” between mathematics and crafts and emergent modelling were easy for the teachers to use. The students were happy when they experienced the bridge. Structures such as timetable planning, teacher allocation, and institutional support were essential for KLUMP to become successful.

STEM teaching is a promising approach to increase student interest in science across educational levels as it integrates disciplines in engaging ways mirroring real-world applications, emphasizing practices such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and hands-on engineering design. However, teachers’ approaches to implementing STEM teaching can vary significantly, depending on available resources, experience, subject, and contextual factors. The STEMification model is a design and planning tool developed in the LabSTEM North project to support teachers´ professional development in STEM teaching. STEMification describes a teaching approach where students engage in science subjects and/or mathematics through inquiry-based learning (IBL) and/or problem-based learning (PBL) processes, involving experiential and collaborative STEM practices necessary to answer the students’ own questions related to the topic. In this paper, we use the model as a mapping tool to explore ways in which high school science teachers apply PBL and IBL principles in their STEM teaching. Applying the model as a mapping tool during interviews helped teachers visualize and compare different IBL/PBL principles combined with diverse approaches to develop STEM teaching. The mapping also helped in redesigning the STEMification model, aiming to make it more applicable as a STEM teaching design and planning tool.

Mathematics for sustainable development (MSD) is an intervention to strengthen the teaching of mathematics using the cross-cutting issues reflected in Uganda’s secondary mathematics curriculum. MSD aims to develop values, skills, attitudes, and knowledge using the three educations for sustainable development (ESD) domains- environment, social, and economic to achieve the 17 global sustainable development goals (SDGs). It is significant to understand the MSD phenomenon and its related attributes for it to be successfully implemented. However, there is a paucity of literature on MSD pedagogies at the secondary school level in Africa. This scoping review aims to offer concrete examples and approaches that enhance the successful implementation of MSD from reviewed articles published about the lower secondary level from 2005 to 2022. The findings identified four key aspects that promote MSD learning, i.e. MSD-based curriculum reforms, CPD for in-service teachers, interdisciplinary teaching, and assessment.