Research Agenda for the New Discipline of Engineering Education, The

Journal of Engineering Education, Oct 2006

Engineering and society are inter-related-each one shapes the other. It is imperative to understand the influences of diverse human talents on society in order to encourage innovation, creativity, and global understanding to achieve a more equitable, inclusive, and prosperous world community. Creating a workforce diat is capable of thinking and working across diverse perspectives is imperative to the future of engineering. To achieve this goal, we must characterize diversity, build communities that value diversity, and develop programs and initiatives to leverage diversity.

This research area examines how diverse perspectives, experiences, and ideas contribute to engineering processes and products. We need to learn how to measure diversity and its impact in order to understand the role diversity plays in advancing solutions, influencing society, and contributing to innovation, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, entrepreneurship, leadership, and global competencies. Ultimately, research must uncover the processes and environments that promote understanding of how we can achieve and sustain a diverse engineering community. Engineering education must be shaped by research that answers questions such as: What are the best practices for faculty development related to diversity? How can the design of learning environments and curricula capitalize on diverse learning styles? How can effective mechanisms be established to help students choose pathways to align with diverse cultural and background experiences? How does diversity within the faculty impact teaching and learning? How is a body of shared understanding created? What is learned from other disciplines, and how is that experience effectively transferred into engineering?

Area5-EngineeringAssessment: Research on, and the development of, assessment methods, instruments, and metrics to inform engineering education practice and learning.

Assessment research is a key element to the continuous improvement of engineering education. Information gained through valid and reliable assessment provides critical feedback to the educational system about the 'state' of engineering as a profession, student engagement and learning, and teaching methods and systems. Future engineering educational innovations require the development or adoption of methodologies and instruments specific to engineering domain knowledge. This development will be influenced by research methodological approaches (both traditional and emergent), cultural drivers and barriers for assessment, and faculty epistemological perspectives.

The development, adaptation, and transfer of methods, instruments, and metrics into the engineering education system require research on those methodological approaches conducive to the engineering educational environment, such as learning processes, different kinds of domain knowledge, socio-cultural factors, and teaching pedagogies. Assessment research must investigate, for example, elements of psychometric properties and aspects of triangulation associated with designing assessment instruments and methodological practices that may be unique to engineering. Research is also needed on the value systems and effective models for change of institutions and faculty. For example: What deters or engages faculty in assessment? What are extrinsic and intrinsic motivators for faculty to engage in assessment? How does assessment fit into the value system of the institution? What are the implications of using assessment to impact or inform change? and What are effective models for building communities of diverse researchers for developing effective assessment? Ultimately, we need to understand the body of knowledge needed by engineering educators to develop, apply, and evaluate assessment methods and tools as well as define the training necessary to accomplish this goal.