Correction to: How innovativeness and handedness affect learning performance of engineering students? In the original publication of the article, the affiliations of the authors have been missed to update. Now the affiliations have been provided in this correction.

Impact of technical information in magic-based inspiration tools on novice designers Abstract There is a growing concern for design students to gain basic technological knowledge for design in real practice. While there is abundance of tools for creativity, technical information has never been implemented as inspiration for ideas. In this paper, to answer the demand of creativity tools with real practice, we created magic-based inspirational cards that contain technical clues of how each magic effect can be created in products. Two versions of the tools were compared: Magic cards (only illustration of magic effects) and Technical cards (illustration of magic effects with additional technical clues). The tools were evaluated with thirty novice designers in two design sessions. In the first session, they were asked to generate design ideas in a design task. Then a week later, they were divided into three groups, control group, Magic cards, and Technical cards. The experimental groups were asked to use the cards as a source of inspiration and to generate design ideas in the same design task. The ideas generated by the participants were assessed in terms of creativity and intended user experience (UX). The findings show that the use of both types of magic-based cards resulted in significantly higher scores in originality and flexibility of ideation. Also, the use of Technical cards led to significantly higher intended UX scores. The analysis of products’ behaviors (outputs) showed a significant increase of physical outputs when magic-based inspiration is provided. Our study suggested that, for novice design students, the Magic Effects set together with technological clues could enhance creativity in ideation.

Investigating the use of robotics to increase girls’ interest in engineering during early elementary school Abstract Men continue to outnumber women in many Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields, particularly technical fields such as engineering and computer science. Educational interventions aimed at addressing the gender disparity between men and women have generally focused on increasing the interest of girls and women during high school and college. There is limited research on interventions that take place during the formative early childhood years. This study addresses this gap by working with young children (ages 5–7) and exploring their newly forming attitudes and interest in technology and engineering. The study asked the following research questions: (1) What are children’s initial attitudes and ideas about technology and engineering? (2) Do boys and girls differ in their initial attitudes about technology and engineering? (3) Does participation in a 7-week KIBO robotics curriculum have an impact on children’s attitudes and ideas about technology and engineering? (4) Do boys and girls perform differently on robotics and programming tasks in early childhood? To answer these questions, public school children in Kindergarten through second grade (N = 105) participated in an introductory KIBO robotics curriculum. Data was collected on their attitudes toward technology and engineering before and after participation in the curriculum as well as their mastery of programming concepts taught. Results provide preliminary evidence that a developmentally appropriate robotics curriculum can increase girls’ interest in engineering.

Pre-school children’s expressed technological volition during construction play Abstract Technology volition is the will to develop knowledge of, and use, the physical world to design products, processes and systems. The aim of this study was to contribute new knowledge of children’s technology volition when they identify, build and improve technical constructions, and how teachers support this learning. Analysis focused on moments when children’s volition was expressed in a construction activity. In total, eleven preschool teachers and 49 children, aged 4–5 years, from three preschools, participated. Data consists of video-recordings from four activities, two each in preschool A and B, showing children’s expressed technological volition, as well as field notes about the teachers’ preparations. Results show how differences among children’s expressed volition is connected to their imagination of how materials can be combined to construct ‘houses’ and ‘vehicles’ from everyday objects. Building a house resulted in a focus on how to make the building solid and water resistant, and inspired children to learn about materials for different purposes in houses such as the floor, walls and an angled roof. Building a vehicle encouraged children to talk about speed, movements and fuel. Results show how children indicate and express their discernment of how materials are combined to create constructions, and how they discover ways in which materials change during the building process. For some of the children it was difficult to see the potential of a material other than its original use, while others used their imagination to find opportunities to use materials to make new objects.

Pilot analysis of the impacts of soft robotics design on high-school student engineering perceptions Abstract Engineering career interest, especially that of young women, declines as they approach high-school graduation. We used expectancy-value theory, which emphasizes expectations for success and subjective value of experiences as antecedent factors to choice, as a framework for investigating new 9th grade soft robot design lessons. Compared to traditional robotics, the nature of soft robotics—materially embedded safety and an emerging technology with significant social implications—positions it to be favorable for growing students’ perceptions of success and value. To gauge the impact of the lessons following the first year of implementation, we use multilevel and ANOVA models to predict changes in three student perceptions following the lessons: self-efficacy (related to expectations of success), and situational motivation and career interest (both related to subjective value). Survey responses and demographic information were collected from 431 students, before and after both the soft robotics treatment lessons and the traditional robotics comparison lessons. Analysis of the results indicates that changes in perception were negligible for both lesson types and genders. These comparable findings between the lesson types indicate the feasibility of incorporating soft robotics into high-school classrooms. While not noticeably better, the soft robotics lessons expose students to an emerging field of engineering situated in a socially meaningful context that is theoretically aligned with career choices. Moreover, challenges that occurred during the first-year implementation suggest possible refinements which may improve students’ experiences and perceptions as our research continues.

Metaphorical reasoning and the design behavior of “pre-architects” Abstract The aim of this work is to examine pre-architects’ use of metaphorical reasoning as a tool for design problem solving exercises in an unfamiliar environment. It is to improve their sense of place, which helps to identify and capture design concepts, as well as define goals and requirements. Regarding the three metaphorical reasoning operations of Welling (analogy, combination and metaphor), a conceptual structure is formulated and context relation is discussed in the paper. In this context, for the studio education, fifteen students have been taken to Milan to clarify the experience of them at the shallowest level of insideness as an authentic sense of place and they have been asked to design a performance center, for any kind of activity that impressed them and to also provide for something lacking in the city. According to the student projects, authentic sense of place was high with the context related metaphorical approaches. Above all, it was even higher when both within domain-deep structures/metaphorical approaches were combined with the within domain- surface features/analogical approaches. The structural expression was in the foreground, however, when a student created his/her own context which was realized with the expressive use of technology and inventive forms. In that case the user is sensitive to space not to seek the meaning of it for those who live there but seeks the meaning desired to be experienced by the designer of the excellent technological expressions. The contextual architecture is contextualized in that sense, but our role as educators should be to teach our students the union of these two.

Assisting teachers’ understanding of student learning in technology Abstract This article describes a study undertaken in New Zealand, England and Sweden and is based on the use of a tool developed by the researcher as a professional development and teaching tool in technology education for teachers of students between four and six years of age. The aim of the research was to investigate teachers’ views of the effectiveness of the tool designed to deepening their understandings of technology content and pedagogical content knowledge. The tool, technology observations and conversation framework (TOCF) was designed to guide teachers’ interactions with and observations of young children when learning technology with the aim of developing teacher insight into their own understanding of technology and how students learn technology. The tool was developed using the building of learning power theory to facilitate the identification of key dispositions and attitudes within four aspects of learning and across five pre-determined behaviours relevant to technology education. Qualitative research methods were used to investigate teachers’ interaction with the TOCF by observing their use of it, and interviewing them about their perceived developed understanding of technology content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The initial purpose of the framework, presented to the teachers prior to teaching, was to guide interactions with students to assist this development and subsequently assist their ability to teach technology effectively and give specific feedback to students in technology education. The study found that teachers felt that they gained a deeper understanding of technology education and their understanding of students’ learning in technology also developed. This article presents the final framework and teachers’ views on how they were assisted by the framework. The study offers an international perspective on ways to broaden and deepen students’ understanding in technological literacy through the development of teacher content knowledge and PCK and contributes significantly to the field of formative assessment in technology education.

Self-efficacy and (vocational) interest in technology and design: an empirical study in seventh and eighth-grade classrooms Abstract The aim of this article is to report the results of an empirical study on adolescents’ interest, self-efficacy, and vocational interest in technology and design. Following the expectancy-value model, we wanted to know how context-specific interest in technology and perceived self-efficacy in solving technical tasks are developed at lower secondary-school level and how they predict vocational interest in technology. These personal-trait variables were operationalized in an online survey conducted among 480 students (seventh and eighth grade) in Northwestern Switzerland. Quantitative analyses showed that interest, self-efficacy, and vocational interest vary with respect to theoretical, practical, and creative activities. Moreover, there were marked gender differences in interest and self-efficacy, especially regarding “Using and repairing technical tools” and “Understanding technological processes.” No gender differences could be found in “Designing in the context of sustainability,” however. Interest, self-efficacy, and vocational interest correlate very highly, but self-efficacy can predict vocational interest in technology better than interest. These results are discussed in the context of recent developments (e.g. STEM initiatives) in the field of technology education worldwide and in particular in Switzerland. According to our analyses and the current discussions about more STEM education and technically skilled teaching staff, schools should provide all students with opportunities to deal with technology, thus enabling them to make manifold experiences in theoretical, practical, creative, and critical ways from early childhood until career choice. At present, this does not seem to be sufficiently the case because otherwise girls would probably not have such negative perceptions of their own abilities.

Learning while designing in a fourth-grade integrated STEM problem Abstract This article reports on a 4th-grade problem activity implemented as part of a 4-year longitudinal, design research study across grades 3–6. The activity integrated the four STEM disciplines through a focus on design. Following investigations of their feet measurements and shoes, two classes of 9-year-olds explored the roles of designers and engineers in shoe manufacture, experimented with materials, and then designed and constructed their own pairs of shoes. A conceptual framework, towards informed design (adapted from Crismond and Adams in J Eng Educ 101(4):738–797, 2012), is advanced for exploring students’ learning while designing. Drawing on this framework, consideration is given to students’ use of design strategies, including posing their own problems and design aims, sketching their shoe designs, testing and reflecting on their products, and redesigning and reconstructing. Although more students expressed a desired shoe than a design problem to be solved, they nevertheless were able to develop their own design aims and constraints. Designing a functional and aesthetically pleasing shoe was most common, together with comfort. Material properties typically less accessible to young students (water repellent, durable, insulated) were also considered in their designs. Students’ attention to detail in their design sketches (e.g., style features, 2-D and 3-D perspectives, measurements, materials) suggested they had progressed beyond beginning designers. Likewise, students’ increased satisfaction with their redesigns, displaying knowledge of material properties, measurement and spatial skills, and design processes indicated progress towards informed design.

Identifying divergent design thinking through the observable behavior of service design novices Abstract Design thinking holds the key to innovation processes, but is often difficult to detect because of its implicit nature. We undertook a study of novice designers engaged in team-based design exercises in order to explore the correlation between design thinking and designers’ physical (observable) behavior and to identify new, objective, design thinking identification methods. Our study addresses the topic by using data collection method of “think aloud” and data analysis method of “protocol analysis” along with the unconstrained concept generation environment. Collected data from the participants without service design experience were analyzed by open and selective coding. Through the research, we found correlations between physical activity and divergent thinking, and also identified physical behaviors that predict a designer’s transition to divergent thinking. We conclude that there are significant relations between designers’ design thinking and the behavioral features of their body and face. This approach opens possible new ways to undertake design process research and also design capability evaluation.