A Practice‐Oriented Exercise Concept to Foster Modeling Competence in Technical Mechanics

Source abstract

ABSTRACT The transition from physical phenomena to idealized mathematical models represents a fundamental cognitive threshold in engineering education. To address this gap, this paper presents a comprehensive, two‐component didactic concept for introductory technical mechanics centered on improving students' “translational performance”. Moving beyond the mere training of procedural mathematical fluency, the core of the intervention heavily emphasizes haptic experiential learning through a sequence of dedicated, physical “modeling occasions”. These practical units are strategically designed to expose the critical discrepancy between measured reality and idealized theory, thereby anchoring abstract mechanical concepts in concrete physical experience. This foundational practical phase is subsequently followed by explicit, validated strategy training and collaborative problem‐solving sessions that formalize the transition into a structured five‐step modeling cycle. A mixed‐methods evaluation reveals exceptional student satisfaction alongside a substantial reduction in the final examination failure rate. Finally, the study critically discusses student attendance dynamics—particularly metacognitive misconceptions and the fading novelty effect during purely analytical tasks—as well as methodological confounding variables, notably a concurrent change in teaching staff, to provide a transparent and rigorously contextualized evaluation of the concept's overall efficacy.