Course Description
A theoretically founded understanding of current trends in engineering education research to serve the following dual purpose: first, to introduce engineering education research graduate students to the latest developments in the field and, second, to integrate this research perspective into the teaching practice of future engineering educators.
Athena Title
ENG EDU ISSUES
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to: • Critically discuss contemporary issues in the discipline of engineering education research. • Locate these issues in the context of fundamental educational theory. • Formulate how the understanding of the contemporary issues informs their own perspective and practice as educational researchers or engineering educators. • Identify educational research or evaluation methods suited to the inquiry into the contemporary issues.
Topical Outline
1. Course introduction and overview 2. Overview of the discipline of engineering education research 2.1. Historical development 2.2. Research agenda of the field 2.3. Broader visions of future engineering education 3. Sustainability in engineering education and professional practice 3.1. Theoretical underpinnings of sustainability 3.2. Aspects of social responsibility and intergenerational justice 3.3. Case study I: Practitioners’ understandings of sustainable design 3.4. Case study II: Integration of sustainability into undergraduate engineering programs 4. Social justice and ethics in engineering: 4.1. Theoretical underpinnings and perspectives of social justice 4.2. Engineering ethics in the broader context of social justice 4.3. Case study I: Educational innovations to integrate social justice issues into engineering education - “Engineering in a morally deep world” 4.4. Case study II: Issues of social justice in engineering practice – “The Reflexive Engineer: Perceptions of Integrated Development” 5. Engineering as an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary endeavor: 5.1. The changing nature of engineering practice “A systems view” 5.2. Case study I: Evaluation of transdiscplinary approaches in engineering undergraduate programs 5.3. Case study II: Transdisciplinary approaches to educational innovation and research in the context of engineering 6. Diversity and Inclusiveness in engineering education 6.1. Historical and international perspectives on diversity in engineering programs 6.2. Case study I: An investigation of engineering culture and its implication on diversity from a communities of practice perspective 6.3. Case study II: An narrative investigation of minority engineering students to inform policy