Building Capacity and Community for Innovation in Engineering Education

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Building Capacity and Community for Innovation in
Engineering Education

• Norman L. Fortenberry, Sc.D.
• Director, CASEE
• nfortenb_at_nae.edu
• 202-334-1926
• Convocation of the Professional Engineering
  Societies
• May 7, 2007

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Context

• Previous speakers have identified key challenges
  and suggested strategies
• Better communicate what engineering is
• Attract and retain new populations to engineering
  study
• Better prepare engineers to address the
  multi-faceted global challenges of the new
  millennium
• Better preparing faculty to foster the learning
  needed for 2020 and beyond

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OUTLINE

• CASEEs Role
• Overview of Scholarship
• Lessons Learned
• Lessons for Engineering Societies

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CASEEs Role

• Foster excellence in the engineering workforce by
  enabling improvements to the effectiveness,
  engagement, efficiency of engineering education
  such that it better meets the needs of employers,
  educators, students, and society.
• Use a research and development approach.
• Build Communities
• Advance Knowledge
• Transfer Knowledge to Improved Practice

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CASEE Fostering Research-Based Practice in
Engineering Education
Dissemination Channels
ACADEME
Post- docs
Research Community
EEES
AREE
Senior Fellows
DIVERSE GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE 21ST
CENTURY ENGINEERING WORKFORCE
PR2OVE-IT
INDUSTRY
MSI Project
EELI
INCREASE KNOWLEDGE
Implementation Network
BUILD R D CAPACITY
SHARE KNOWLEDGE
TRANSFORM ENGINEERING EDUCATION
GOVERNMENT
BUILD COMMUNITY
DISTILATE
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
Chronicles
CASEE Annual Meeting
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RD Approach requires

• Building capacity and facility for the
• Conduct,
• Communication,
• Evaluation,
• Commercialization, and
• Broad Implementation
• of engineering education research and its
  products.

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CASEE Communities

• Research Activities
• Research Community and Corresponding Centers
• Senior Fellows, Post-docs, Scholars-in-Residence
• Annals of Research of Engineering Education
  (on-line)
• Strengthening HBCU (and HSI) Engineering
  Education Research Capacity
• Implementation Activities
• Implementation Network
• Peer Reviewed Research Offering Validation of
  Effective and Innovative Teaching (on-line)
• Instructional Metrics
• Diversity Metrics
• Dissemination Activities
• Dissemination Channels
• Engineering Education Leadership Institute
• Engineering Equity Extension Service
• CASEE Chronicles
• DISTILATE e-newsletter

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Miller Symposium 10/9/07

• Kamyar Haghighi on the development of Purdues
  Dept. of Engineering Education
• Rohan Abeyaratne on engineering education
  research at MIT
• Cynthia Atman on the NSF-funded Center for the
  Advancement of Engineering Education
• John Dickens on the Engineering Subj Cntr of the
  UKs Higher Education Academy

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Definition of Scholarship

• Creative Work,
• Recognized by Peers, and
• Appropriately Communicated.

Oregon State University ca. 1995
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Boyers Forms of Scholarship

• Discovery
• Application
• Integration
• Teaching reflective practitioner
• All three can be forms of scholarship are
  relevant for STEM discipline-based education
• Research on education
• Teaching
• Synthetic meta analysis
• Faculty (self-)Development

Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered, CFAT (1990)
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Areas of Scholarship

• Two Frameworks
• Engineering Education Research Colloquies
  (Journal of Engineering Education Vol 95, No. 4
  10/06)
• Area 1Engineering Epistemologies Research on
  what constitutes engineering thinking and
  knowledge within social contexts now and into the
  future.
• Area 2Engineering Learning Mechanisms Research
  on engineering learners developing knowledge and
  competencies in context.
• Area 3Engineering Learning Systems Research on
  the instructional culture, institutional
  infrastructure, and epistemology of engineering
  educators.
• Area 4Engineering Diversity and Inclusiveness
  Research on how diverse human talents contribute
  solutions to the social and global challenges and
  relevance of our profession.
• Area 5Engineering Assessment Research on, and
  the development of, assessment methods,
  instruments, and metrics to inform engineering
  education practice and learning.

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Areas of Scholarship

• Two Frameworks (continued)
• CASEE Research Areas
• Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Processes
  Research on
• instruction, learning and assessment in formal,
  informal, extracurricular, and lifelong
  educational settings,
• student and instructor assessment and
• on experiential learning environments and
  community practice.
• Teachers and Learners Research on
• the behavior and interactions among individual
  and groups of instructors and students in
  educational and extracurricular settings,
  including motivation, advisement, mentoring, and
  career development of instructors and students
• the images (including self-images) of engineers
  and engineering held by faculty and students, how
  these images affect the quality of teaching and
  learning, and how these images can be
  productively modified and
• race, ethnicity, gender, physical ability, and
  social class (of instructors and students) as
  lenses for performing critical analyses and
  evaluations of access to, participation in, and
  success of engineering study and engineering
  practice.
• Courses, Laboratories, Curricula, Instructional
  Materials, and Learning Technologies Research
  on
• how curricula, instructional materials, and
  teaching practices interact to affect learning
• methods and effects of integrating the latest
  content knowledge into curricula and
• on the use of technologies to structure
  educational environments and transform
  educational practice.

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Areas of Scholarship

• Two Frameworks (concluded)
• CASEE Research Areas
• Educational Management and Goal Systems Research
  on
• the goals, roles, and interactions among and
  between individual learners, (faculty and
  graduate student) instructors, departments,
  colleges, universities, governing boards,
  advisory committees, accreditors, employers,
  professional societies, and other stakeholders in
  higher education
• evaluation of theory and practices related to
  issues of efficiency, effectiveness, and
  improvement of educational organizations and
• development of, and use of educational
  indicators, including indicators of student
  learning outcomes, course and curricular quality,
  staff, academic climate and conditions,
  demographics, and finance, and the relationship
  of indicators to accountability.
• Political, Economic, and Social Influences on
  Engineering Education Research on
• the relationships between education processes and
  social, political, and economic contexts in which
  they operate including the community, climate,
  and culture aspects of educational settings
• educational finance and its impact on policy for
  all levels and aspects of education and
• images of engineers and engineering held by the
  public and various national constituencies, how
  these images affect the quality of teaching and
  learning within engineering, and how these images
  can be productively modified.
• Diffusion of Educational Innovations Research
  on
• the nature of diffusion of educational research
  knowledge, expanding understanding of research
  results, and the practical application of
  research results
• the teaching and proper usage of quantitative and
  qualitative educational research methods and
• how education research is used to improve
  education policy and practice.

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Education as a Transformation Process
Goals/objs of Depts, Univs, Prof. Socs, Emplrs,
etc.
Goals/Objectives Depts., Univs., Prof.
Societies, Employers, etc.
Tools (e.g., Curriculum, Labs, Technology, etc.)
Teachers Learners
Constraints and Ext. Influences
Constraints and Ext. Influences
Teachers Learners
Tools (Curriculum Labs, Tech, etc.)
Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Processes
Teaching and Learning Processes
Input
Output
Transformation Process Model Inspired by Hubka
and Eder (1988)
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A Lesson Learned

• Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Processes
• Cognitive Science can inform effective
  instructional practices (e.g, The National
  Academies published How People Learn and
  highlighted the classroom implications)
• ? CASEE Community Activities
• CASEE is partnering with the EngineeringPathway
  Digital Library to provide improved access to its
  free resource on instructional interventions,
  assessment practices, and student learning
  outcomes
• http//www.pr2ove-it.org

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A Lesson Learned

• Educational Tools
• Educational progress is promoted by thematic
  coherence and reduced competition among courses.
  (van der Hulst Jansen, Higher Education.
  43489-506, 2002)
• ? CASEE Community Activities
• ASCE is piloting a new Body of Knowledge in a
  sample of civil engineering departments.

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Two Lessons Learned

• Teachers and Learners
• Faculty are reluctant to engage in SOTL
  activities if it is not clear how such activities
  will be rewarded
• Sociology/Psychology (e.g., Literature on
  stereotype threat on how sensitive it is to
  positive and negative triggers Cohen et al.
  Science 313 (5791) pp. 1307-1310 Steele and
  Ambady Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
  40 (2004) pp. 401-408 http//www.wjh.harvard.edu/
  jmitchel/research/2004_Ambady_stereotypeThreat_JES
  P.pdf
• ? CASEE Community Activities
• CASEE is working on metrics of instructional
  scholarship
• CASEEs EEES project (with ASME and IEEE) is
  building an on-line library related to
  research-based practices in gender equity at
  http//eees.nae.edu/

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A Lesson Learned

• Management and Goal Systems
• Engineering curricula are shaped by an array of,
  sometimes competing, stakeholder groups both
  within and outside of the department and
  university. (Silar and Johnson, ASEE 2004)
• ? CASEE Community Activities
• The Dane and Mary Louise Miller Symposium brings
  together a variety of constituencies to share
  common ground and build shared understanding

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A Lesson Learned

• Constraints and External Influences
• A group at Duke has been questioning the number
  and quality Chinese and Indian engineers (its
  only 200K not 300K to our 75K). Wadhwa et al.
  Issues in Science and Technology Vol. 23, No. 3,
  2007
• ? CASEE Community Activities
• CASEE focuses on the quality of the workforce and
  recognizes that Japan once made cars that people
  shunned, so also focuses on innovation and looks
  for the next frontier

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Lessons for Engineering Societies

• The education research base is robust.
• ? Societies can link to these resources and
  incorporate their lessons and findings into
• Faculty workshops, and
• On-line modules for working professionals.

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Lessons for Engineering Societies

• The education research base is growing.
• CASEE partnered with the American Sociological
  Association to look at inhibitors to faculty
  educational innovation
• ? Engineering societies can support links to each
  other and societies in other disciplines for
  mutual benefit.

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Lessons for Engineering Societies

• Connections speed knowledge awareness and rates
  of adaptation.
• Engineering societies can help build communities
  of practice consisting of
• Education researchers
• Classroom faculty
• Industrial clients
• Etc.

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Lessons for Engineering Societies

• Education research supports societies goals
• ? Engineering societies can contribute to the
  research base by
• Defining the bodies of knowledge required for
  professional practice in engineering fields and
  subfields (ASCE ASME examples).
• Recognizing the valuing of diversity as an
  important engineering attribute (ABET example)
• Contributing to innovative, cost-effective and
  time-efficient strategies to improve student
  learning and instructional effectiveness (Natl
  Collaboative on Grad Eng Ed Reform example)
• Developing, validating, and implementing
  assessments of student learning and instructional
  effectiveness.

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Lessons for Engineering Societies

• Faculty have a stronger identities with their
  disciplines than their institutions.
• ? Engineering societies can help translate
  research to improved practice
• Work with members to raise prominence of
  research-based practice.
• Implement research-based practice in your own
  activities.
• Advocate attention to ABET EC Criterion 4 on
  Instructional Quality

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Lessons for Engineering Societies

• Engineering Societies have a self-interest in
  increasing interest in engineering dissemination
  efforts
• ? Engineering societies can be aware of the
  special session at the CASEE Annual Meeting
  focused on a possible video game and television
  show focused on engineering.

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Questions?