Technical Drawing in Engineering Education: Tool for Engineers’ Communication, Design and Ability Development

Abstract

Technical drawing is a core of many engineering and design courses. The goals of this research are to assess whether engineering students who studied technical drawing at the university, using traditional tools for drawing and computer tools, improve their intellectual abilities, especially the effectiveness of perceptive and cognitive processors. The pilot research consists of two studies: (1) a correlation study of students’ abilities and pre-university experience with technical drawing courses; and (2) a quasi-experimental study of the effects of technical drawing courses on students' abilities. The sample consists of 46 first-year undergraduate students in engineering departments (study 1) and 12 students selected from the first group after completing the course and passing an exam. The correlations between students’ ability to visualize spatial relationships and achievement in presenting a three-dimensional model in three projections are confirmed. The second study confirmed that the students’ perceptual processing abilities improved during the technical drawing course. In conclusion, the importance of learning technical drawing for some abilities development is emphasized, some research topics are opened, and some educational implications are suggested.