During the last 40 years, problem- and project-based learning (PBL) has been widely adopted in engineering education because of its expected effectiveness in developing students’ professional knowledge and transferable skills. With a growing number of PBL researches and practices in engineering education, systematic or meta-analysis reviews were conducted regarding the definitions, history and development of PBL, and benefits for student learning outcomes. However, challenges in PBL implementation was little addressed in the current review works, and even less attention has been paid on how these challenges in implementation are related to the diverse PBL practices. This paper reviewed 108 research articles to explore the levels at which the currently reported PBL practice is being implemented, and what challenges in PBL practices are being addressed. This research illustrates the variety of PBL implementation at the course level, cross-course level, curriculum level, and project level. Across these four levels, similar challenges are reported at the individual level for teachers and students, as well as at the institutional level and the culture level. Recommendations on future research directions for engineering educational researchers and suggestions for engineering faculty and staff are proposed to optimise PBL curriculum design and inform future PBL implementation.

Contribution: This study explores the elements engineering students perceive as important for developing their learner agency in the context of intercultural project-based learning (PBL) teams. Background: The concept of learner agency has recently gained prominence due to its relevance for student-centeredness, autonomy, self-regulation, and collaboration. Certain pedagogical approaches are known to specifically support the development of learner agency, including PBL, in which learners are provided with active, self-directed, and collaborative learning tasks. PBL practice is also increasingly diverse, emphasizing intercultural collaboration in teams. However, learner agency has received little research attention in PBL settings, and even less in intercultural PBL. This study contributes to the existing literature on the development of learner agency in intercultural PBL teams. Research Question: What elements do engineering students consider important for supporting their learner agency development in an intercultural PBL team context? Methodology: Theoretically, learner agency is framed within three interrelated dimensions, namely, intrapersonal, behavioral, and environmental. Based on this framework, a survey instrument with 31 items was constructed and responses were obtained from 310 engineering students. The survey used expert review, student piloting, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and Cronbach’s alpha to test content validity, construct validity, and reliability. The descriptive and demographic statistics were examined through $t$ -test and the analysis of variance test. Findings: Five factors emerged from EFA: 1) interest and motivation; 2) self-efficacy; 3) self-regulated behaviors in teams; 4) team dynamics; and 5) external support. The statistical analysis shows that the interest and motivation factor was perceived by the engineering students as the most important. Furthermore, several demographic variables, including gender, nationality, year of study, and type of PBL learner based on their level of experience with PBL, were found to impact engineering students’ agency development.

Taking a human-centered socio-cultural perspective, this study explored the manifold individual and structural processes that contribute to researchers’ AI readiness. Forty-three graduate students and faculty at one university in Qatar took part in this Q methodology study. The results represented participants’ collective perspectives on what they considered relevant to their AI readiness. A 5 + 1-factor solution was accepted, illustrating diverse perspectives and no consensus. The factors were termed based on their main foci, as follows, (F-1) how technical skills are acquired, (F-2) when it is all about ethics, (F-3) when technical skills meet ethical considerations, (F-4a and F-4b) when opposites concede, and (F-5) how collaborations reflect AI readiness. The results revealed the diversity of viewpoints among participants, and the interrelations among some factors. This study recommended a holistic approach to enhance AI readiness. It suggested integrating targeted educational initiatives and developing localized ethical frameworks to promote responsible AI use across various research disciplines.

Contribution: This article illustrates a theoretical model and an analytical tool for understanding the influence of diverse elements of the project-based learning (PBL) environment on engineering identity development in students. Supportive elements in three dimensions that contribute to students’ identities as future engineers are identified to inspire the improvement of future PBL design. Background: Prior research has investigated the components and impact factors of engineering identity, emphasizing the importance of understanding engineering identity development in diverse learning contexts. While a wide range of educational activities has been regarded as contextual factors that influence students’ feelings about becoming engineers, it is still unclear what learning elements from the PBL context could contribute to engineering identity development in students, and limited analytical tools are developed from and tested in the PBL environment. Research Question: What elements of the PBL environment contribute to engineering identity development in students from the students’ perspectives? Methodology: Considering the dimensions of internal motivation (IM), competence beliefs (CBs), and external support (ES), a survey was designed based on prior qualitative studies and conducted at a leading Danish university. The survey’s content validity, construct validity, and reliability were tested using expert review, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and Cronbach’s alpha. Findings: Supportive PBL elements for engineering identity development in students were reported in the dimensions of IM, CBs, and ES. Among the three dimensions, IM was identified as the most important for allowing students to develop the feeling that they would become engineers in the future. Comparisons between genders, educational levels, and academic subjects verified the different impacts of the three dimensions on engineering identity development.