Scaffolding structured reflective practices in engineering design problem solving

One of the primary goals of research in engineering design education is to help students develop design thinking skills and adopt expert design practices in order to improve their design process. Research shows reflection as an effective cognitive strategy to help the progression of novice designers towards expertise. However, facilitating reflection on one's actions while performing a collaborative action has not been a prominent scholarly area of research in engineering education. In this paper, we identify various elements in the learning environment that most likely trigger reflection during the design process. Based on these triggers, we present guidelines for designing scaffolds to support such reflection. We also propose a technology-enhanced prototype as an example of realizing these guidelines and promoting computer supported structured reflective practices during the design process.