The effects of background upon engineering design expertise and producing more competent engineering design students (a Sino-occidental comparison)

Recent research into the effects of background (national and cultural) on design thinking and practice has shown that background does indeed affect the way an individual approaches a design problem. Given the role of design within engineering and national diversity of students within many engineering courses, an understanding of how this happens can be used to inform engineering design curricular. To inform how engineering design curricula can be modified to benefit a greater diversity of students. Prior art on engineering design expertise, theory on the effects of background upon psychology (specifically comparing Sino and occidental groups) and theory on engineering design education will be reviewed. The outcomes of these reviews will then be used to draw conclusion on likely problems and potential solutions. Cultural attitudes toward the nature of knowledge can affect the way a student thinks a problem should be solved, which can lead them away from developing proper engineering design expertise. Further, national background can affect what one thinks is important, and how a problem is framed, which can prevent a student from taking on engineering problems objectively to find optimum solutions. Because background does affect the way one approaches a design problem it is important to note that all students will have something in their background that might help or hamper their ability to tackle design problems and develop their engineering design expertise. Helping students understand and confront this will help them to improve their engineering design ability and make the most of other educational tools used to develop design skills.