The Use of Executive Control Processes in Engineering Design by Engineering Students and Professional Engineers

Brophy, Klein, Portmore, and Rogers (2008) admitted that, as industries are driven by the rapid development of enabling technologies, they must become more flexible and adaptive to remain competitive. This flexibility is achieved through a workforce that can utilize newly available technologies and generate innovations of their own. They further suggested that such technological capability in the workforce can only be possible if students entering higher education are prepared differently at the K-12 level, through programs that target the development of technological literacy.
Driven by the goal to improve technological literacy, the Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (ITEA, 2002) provide a framework for increasing students’ technological literacy at all levels of the K-12 curriculum through the integration of engineering design. In reference to the design component of the Standards for Technology Literacy, Lewis (2005) argued that it is “the single most important content area set forth in the standards, because it is a concept that situates the subject more completely within the domain of engineering” (p. 37). Consistent with its usage in society, engineering design provides an ideal platform for engineering and technology educators to integrate mathematics, science, and technology concepts for students to solve real-world (ill-structured) problems innovatively and creatively.