Theorizing neuro-induced relationships between cognitive diversity, motivation, grit and academic performance in multidisciplinary engineering education context

TL;DR

This paper proposes a neuro-inspired theoretical framework linking cognitive diversity, motivation, and grit to academic performance in multidisciplinary engineering education, aiming to inform more effective, learner-centered pedagogical approaches.

Contribution

It introduces a novel neuro-induced conceptual model using brain fingerprinting to enhance understanding of diverse learners in multidisciplinary engineering contexts.

Findings

Proposes a neuro-inspired framework for engineering education

Suggests pedagogical approaches based on brain fingerprinting

Highlights the importance of motivation and grit in diverse learning environments

Abstract

Nowadays, engineers need to tackle many unprecedented challenges that are often complex, and, most importantly, cannot be exhaustively compartmentalized into a single engineering discipline. In other words, most engineering problems need to be solved from a multidisciplinary approach. However, conventional engineering programs usually adopt pedagogical approaches specifically tailored to traditional, niched engineering disciplines, which become increasingly deviated from the industry needs as those programs are typically designed and taught by instructors with highly specialized engineering training and credentials. To reduce the gap, more multidisciplinary engineering programs emerge by systematically stretching across all engineering fibers, and challenge the sub-optimal traditional pedagogy crowded in engineering classrooms. To further advance future-oriented pedagogy, in this work, we hypothesized neuro-induced linkages between how cognitively different learners are and how the linkages would affect learners in the knowledge acquisition process. We situate the neuro-induced linkages in the context of multidisciplinary engineering education and propose possible pedagogical approaches to actualize the implications of this conceptual framework. Our study, based on the innovative concept of brain fingerprint, would serve as a pioneer model to theorize key components of learner-centered multidisciplinary engineering pedagogy which centers on the key question: how do we motivate engineering students of different backgrounds from a neuro-inspired perspective?