  Current concerns over reforming engineering education have focused attention
on helping students develop skills and an adaptive expertise. Phenomenological
guidelines for instruction along these lines can be understood as arising out
of an emerging theory of thinking and learning built on results in the neural,
cognitive, and behavioral sciences. We outline this framework and consider some
of its implications for one example: developing a more detailed understanding
of the specific skill of using mathematics in modeling physical situations.
This approach provides theoretical underpinnings for some best-practice
instructional methods designed to help students develop this skill and
providesguidance for further research in the area.
