2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Complete Theory Paper seeks to explore how first-year engineering programs introduce students to the field by evaluating what types of engineering habits of mind are emphasized in foundational courses. The study focuses on a first-year engineering program at a large land-grant university in the Southeast United States that has been successful in retaining their first-year students. We examine an introductory course that helps onboard students into engineering as a discipline through topics such as problem solving, major exploration, engineering design, and professional skill development.
First-year programs are often called upon to fulfill a variety of roles in a university: orienting students to college, providing preparation for subsequent technical studies, and helping students navigate selecting a major or a discipline, among others. One common goal of these programs is to expose students to a so-called engineering mindset and prepare them for the engineering process regardless of which engineering discipline they may choose after introductory courses. In many cases, this may contrast with the types of thinking required in their prior studies. This paper seeks to evaluate the types of thinking that are encouraged in first-year courses by mapping them to the Engineering Habits of Mind (EHoM) developed by Lucas & Hanson [1]. Our aim for this evaluation is to illuminate the most prominent aspects of “engineering thinking” emphasized in the first year to provide insights for the development of these programs.
The six EHoM proposed by Lucas & Hanson (2016)—systems thinking, problem-finding, visualizing, improving, creative problem-solving, and adapting— are intentionally framed as discipline-specific dispositions that characterize how engineers approach inquiry and action [1]. The model situates these EHoM separately from broader learning habits of mind such as ethical awareness, curiosity, and collaboration that are common to many disciplines. By focusing on these engineering-specific habits separately from broader learning habits, the model can serve as a useful tool for categorizing the learning goals and course content of a first-year engineering program. This helps ensure that core rather than specialized engineering ways of thinking and acting are intentionally foregrounded rather than implicitly assumed.
To gain insight into the first-year course being studied, we examine three components of a well-designed learning experience as informed by a constructive alignment approach with respect to their alignment with the dimensions contained in the EHoM model. This analysis is supported by examples from the teaching/learning space (class topics and activities) and assessment artifacts (examples of assignments) to provide additional context.
All six EHoM were found to be represented across the three dimensions of the course; additionally, we found that the course also covers a range of broader learning habits of mind (LHoM). This finding emphasizes the role that first-year program courses can play in not only covering technical skills such as programming and CAD but also helping students develop an engineering mindset more broadly. By showcasing that this framework can be an effective lens by which to view university-level courses, this study can potentially direct future research into the types of content and pedagogies used in other engineering courses in the first year and beyond and offer insights into program development and improvement.

[1] B. Lucas and J. Hanson, “Thinking Like an Engineer: Using Engineering Habits of Mind and Signature Pedagogies to Redesign Engineering Education,” Int. J. Eng. Ped., vol. 6, no. 2, p. 4, May 2016, doi: 10.3991/ijep.v6i2.5366.