http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories an informal guide for the engineering education scholar by Jenni Case Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:52:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Allie, S.,Armien, M. N., Bennie, K., Burgoyne, N., Case, J., Craig,T. (2007). Learning as acquiring a discursive identity through participation in a community:A theoretical position on improving student learning in tertiary science and engineering programmes. Unpublished manuscript, Cape Town, South Africa, http://www.cree.uct.ac.za . Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology: a cognitive ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/references/ In recent times the idea of the ‘scholarship of teaching and learning’ has come to the fore. Ernest Boyer, who coined the term (1990), put forward a compelling argument around what scholarship in the academy should entail. He suggested that academics might aim to be scholars, not only in the ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/concluding-comments/ Sfard,A. (2001). There is more to discourse than meets the ears: looking at thinking as communicating to learn more about mathematical learning. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 46 (1-3), 13-57. Discourse analysis is surprisingly difficult to do for those of us who don’t have a background in linguistics, but the best way ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/where-can-i-read-further-to-learn-more-about-this-tool-6/ Kittleson, J. M., and Southerland, S.A. (2004).The role of discourse in group knowledge construction: a case study of engineering students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41 (3), 267-293. Julie Kittleson and Sherry Southerland research what happens in groups of mechanical engineering students who are doing their senior design project.What they ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/show-me-an-example-3/ So what’s the big deal? If we are focusing on ‘talking engineering’ how hard can it be… ((Leach and Scott (2003, p 9) point out that this is a misconception.)) In fact being able to use engineering discourse successfully, so as to be recognised as a competent graduate engineer by ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/in-what-ways-might-this-be-a-useful-thinking-tool-5/ In engineering education we can therefore think of ourselves as working to produce ‘technologically literate’ graduates – with literacy used here in the broad sense of being able to use a particular specialist engineering discourse.What is worth noting is that discourse has been an especially useful thinking tool in mathematics ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/what-does-this-mean-for-engineering-education-7/ With a focus on ‘discourse’ it might seem that we are focusing exclusively on written and spoken language – this might seem fine for the language teacher but only a part of what we are needing to think about in engineering education. In fact, the term discourse refers broadly to ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/tool-6-discourse/ Gee, J. P. (2001). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education, 25 (1), 99-125. James Gee is well known for his work in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. In this paper he presents his take on ‘identity’ which is sociologically grounded with a particular focus ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/where-can-i-read-further-to-learn-more-about-this-tool-5/ Walker, M. (2001). Engineering identities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 22 (1), 75-89. In this paper Melanie Walker reports on a project which sought to understand the experiences of male and female students in a large Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at a pre-1992 university. She interviewed six men ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/show-me-an-example-4/ Many engineering educators are concerned about the involvement of students from ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds in engineering education, for example women and ethnic minorities ((See, for example, Seymour (1995).)).These concerns centre on the choice to do engineering, success in engineering programmes and taking up engineering careers. Research in this area has often ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/in-what-ways-might-this-be-a-useful-thinking-tool-4/ Learning engineering is not simply a matter of ‘acquiring knowledge’; engaging with engineering is an act that has implications for how others will see you. Students come to engineering with some identities already in place that they use in the home, at school, with their friends.Taking on the new identity ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/what-does-this-mean-for-engineering-education-6/ Identity might seem to be a topic more suited to the clinical psychologist than the engineering educator:“I don’t need to know if my first years are well-adjusted 18 year olds, I just need to worry about whether they are learning any engineering!” It is therefore important to note that the ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/tool-5-identity/ Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization, 7 (2), 225-246. This paper is focused generally on organisational contexts (and not directly on formal educational settings) but in it Etienne Wenger lays out very clearly how he sees the concept of ‘communities of practice’ which he originally devised ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/where-can-i-read-further-to-learn-more-about-this-tool-4/ Case, J. M. and Jawitz, J. (2004). Using situated cognition theory in researching student experience of the workplace. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41 (5), 415-431. Jenni Case and Jeff Jawitz used the idea of ‘community of practice’ to explore engineering students’ experiences of industrial vacation work.They sought to investigate ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/show-me-an-example-5/ What is the community of practice? Is it your classroom? Your department? The professional community of engineers? One can apply this thinking tool to communities at different levels. But if you consider your course or your programme then you need to think about what would be the appropriate activities that ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/in-what-ways-might-this-be-a-useful-thinking-tool-3/ This view on learning with a focus on ‘communities of practice’ has in fact always been implicitly present in engineering education. Our students spend periods in industry, they do practical investigations that get them to work with small scale versions of engineering equipment and our final year assessment is often ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/what-does-this-mean-for-engineering-education-5/ Community ((The learning theory that encompasses this thinking tool is called ‘situated cognition’ (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989) or ‘situated learning’ (Lave and Wenger, 1991).)). Just another buzzword? Here is a thinking tool that invites you to consider the educational context as a ‘community of practice’. A community of practice ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/tool-4-community-of-practice34/ Learning is not merely a matter of acquiring knowledge, it is a matter of deciding what kind of person you are and want to be and engaging in those activities that make one a part of the relevant communities. (Brickhouse, 2001, p. 286) In working with Tools 4-6 we will draw ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/learning-as-participation/ Biggs, J. B. (1999).What the student does: teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education Research and Development, 18 (1), 55-75. John Biggs is one of the key scholars in this area of research. His early results with his ‘Study Process Questionnaire’ (((Biggs, 1978).)) were surprisingly similar to those arising independently from the ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/where-can-i-read-further-to-learn-more-about-this-tool-3/ Ellis, R. A., Goodyear, P., Calvo, R. A., and Prosser, M. (2008). Engineering students’ conceptions of and approaches to learning through discussions in face-to-face and online contexts. Learning and Instruction, 18 (3), 267-282. Robert Ellis and colleagues conducted their investigation with third year engineering students at an Australian university.They focused their ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/show-me-an-example-2/ Context is everything in approaches to learning theory.You can’t simply ‘blame the student’ – you have to try and understand how the educational environment is being perceived.This is not as difficult as it might sound. Many people like to use inventories to identify students’ approaches to learning (for example, Ellis ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/in-what-ways-might-this-be-a-useful-thinking-tool-2/ If approaches to learning are determined by the student’s response to an educational context then the challenge for educators is to create environments which foster deep approaches to learning ((Biggs calls this ‘constructive alignment’ (Biggs, 1999).)). This is not as straightforward as one might guess, especially in engineering programmes which ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/what-does-this-mean-for-engineering-education-4/ Approaches to learning describe what students do when they go about learning and why they do it.The basic distinction is between a deep approach to learning, where students are aiming towards understanding, and a surface approach to learning, where they are aiming to reproduce material in a test or exam ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/tool-3-approaches-to-learning/ Booth, S. (2001). Learning Computer Science and Engineering in Context. Computer Science Education, 11 (3), 169-188. Shirley Booth has played a key role in the area of phenomenographic research, starting with her PhD on students who were learning to program in a computer science and engineering course ((Booth, 1992).)). She then ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/where-can-i-read-further-to-learn-more-about-this-tool-2/ Marshall, D., Summers, M., and Woolnough, B. (1999). Students’ conceptions of learning in an engineering context. Higher Education, 38 (3), 291-309. In this study Delia Marshall and colleagues focused on engineering students’ ways of experiencing learning itself, also termed ‘conceptions of learning’.The assumption is that the ways that students experience or ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/show-me-an-example/ A focus on ‘ways of experiencing’ does open up new perspectives on teaching and learning. It is especially useful in the ways in which it links an understanding of student learning to acts of teaching. In recent work the awareness of a range of different ways of experiencing a phenomenon ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/in-what-ways-might-this-be-a-useful-thinking-tool-6/ Although the purists would perhaps not agree, it is possible at this stage to see many links between this tool (ways of experiencing) and tool 1 (concepts).The underlying theory is different, but in both cases one is able to investigate a range of different ‘prior ideas’ as well as unpack ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/what-does-this-mean-for-engineering-education-3/ Leach, J., and Scott, P. (2003). Individual and Sociocultural Views of Learning in Science Education. Science & Education, 12 (1), 91-113. As noted above, research into students’ conceptions and conceptual change has been very prominent in science education research. John Leach and Phil Scott represent the research group at the University ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/where-can-i-read-further-to-learn-more-about-this-tool/ Carew, A. L., and Mitchell, C. A. (2002). Characterising Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Understanding of Sustainability. European Journal of Engineering Education, 27 (4), 349-361 In the context of new requirements for engineers to ‘understand’ sustainability ((This was based on the latest accreditation requirements from the Institution of Engineers in Australia, in particular ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/show-me-an-example-6/ The focus on students’ concepts both before and after instruction was a major step forward in education theory – rather than simply stating that a student ‘got it wrong’, one started to take an active interest in the wrong answers.This has proved to be a very productive angle both for ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/in-what-ways-might-this-be-a-useful-thinking-tool/ Most of the research on concepts and conceptual change has been in the natural science disciplines of physics and chemistry, some of this work with university students. Given that these are the disciplines which form part of the foundation for engineering studies, there is much here that can be applied ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/what-does-this-mean-for-engineering-education-2/ In thinking about the learner’s existing knowledge in terms of concepts ((This perspective comes from cognitive science. Much science education research in this area builds on the studies of Piaget, and this is sometimes referred to as a ‘constructivist’ theory of learning (cf. Matthews, 1998).)) we are putting forward an ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/tool-1-concepts/ If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle I would say this: the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows.Ascertain this and teach him accordingly. (Ausubel, 1968, p. vi) In working with tools 1-3 we will be focusing in different ways ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/learning-as-acquisition/ Using a view of a theory as a set of ‘thinking tools’, this guide offers a selection for building up your tool kit. Six ‘tools’ have been identified.The selection is obviously personal and I have picked out those tools that I have found particularly useful in my own research in ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/the-structure-of-this-guide/ I have endeavoured to make this guide as accessible as possible for those who are new to educational research. From my own experience and those of colleagues, I know that it can be difficult to find your way into educational literature.This guide therefore uses a very informal style and is ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/a-note-on-writing-style/ This guide is intended for newcomers to the field: for engineering teachers who want to be able to use education theory and research findings to inform their teaching; and for aspiring engineering education researchers who want to launch their own projects. It is worth noting that much current published literature in engineering education ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/who-is-this-guide-intended-for/ From this perspective learning involves a new ‘way of experiencing’, something which might sound quite similar to concepts and conceptual change.We are again interested in what learners know both before and after instruction – but there is one key difference that we need to note.With the term ‘ways of experiencing ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/tool-2-ways-of-experiencing/ In the world of engineering there are theories that can be used for building a bridge, designing a chemical reactor or improving the aerodynamics of an aeroplane. It is probably then quite reasonable to assume that education theory will deliver some straight answers on how to conduct teaching or how ... http://www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/education-theories/index.php/a-view-on-theory-in-education/