Applied, Related Knowledge: Defining Engineers and Students Domains of Knowing

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Montfort is studying the similarities and differences between how engineers and engineering students categorize what they know. Existing research in the fields of conceptual change and personal epistemology show that learning and the application of what is learned both depend on the ways in which the new knowledge is organized. This work utilizes the construct of domains as a means to investigate the organizations of participants' knowledge at a meaningful grain size. In this investigation practicing engineers are asked to describe the domains of knowledge applied to real multi-disciplinary projects they have been engaged in. Students are also interviewed about the domains of knowledge involved in these projects. Thematic analysis based on an interactional approach to personal epistemology provides a means to compare the domains of knowing between the engineers and students. Although it has not been firmly established yet, existing research suggests that students' domains of knowing do more to interfere with the application of their knowledge than to facilitate it. In other words, the way students organize what they know may be interfering with how able they are to apply it. Where an experienced engineer might see a cohesive domain of knowledge -- such as "process engineering" for example -- engineering students may instead see an arbitrary grouping of otherwise dissimilar skills and ideas. Previous research emphasizes how students struggle to learn the concepts of engineering, and treats the application of that knowledge as a separate (if closely related) problem. This work develops a potentially transformative new way of looking at it by focusing on the organization processes that control both how something is learned and how it is applied.