CAREER: Personal Epistemology in Engineering Education

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

Investigating How Engineers and Students Understand and Use Their Own Knowledge The US currently faces a number of challenges, from developing new sources of energy to managing increasing health costs - which require new approaches for their solutions. The pace of technological change is rapidly increasing at the same time, such that the tools available and the challenges now being faced are not the same ones that will be present in only a few years. Thus, it is imperative that the education of engineers includes teaching them to use existing knowledge in new ways to tackle unexpected problems. This study investigates how students and engineers understand their own knowledge, so we will be better able to address students' existing knowledge models and help them develop into more agile, efficient engineers of the future. The goal of this project is to understand how students' personal epistemologies (i.e. their assumptions about what it means to know something, and what counts as knowledge) develop through their experiences in engineering education and practice. As students learn, professors teach, and administrators work toward constant improvement, they are all operating from within their own personal epistemologies and making fundamental assumptions about how knowledge and certainty are generated, shared and re-formed. In particular, they all make assumptions about the epistemology of engineering and what characterizes an engineering way of knowing. Currently, epistemological assumptions about engineering practice are largely unspoken and unexamined. Current research suggests that many faculty members operate under different assumptions about knowledge, and that these differences limit their potential to develop or collaborate toward common goals. This project will use interviews and thematic analysis to bring to light the personal epistemologies of engineering students and faculty, and help orient them to the epistemological demands of engineering practice. It is essential that central stakeholders develop tools and resources to discuss their own and others' personal epistemologies to achieve the goals of engineering education, and to make sure that those goals remain oriented to achieving significant social good. The practical goals of this project can be expressed as four specific aims: (1) Characterize the personal epistemologies of engineering students and practicing engineers; (2) Critically analyze the implications of students' personal epistemologies in the contexts of engineering education and practice; (3) Iteratively develop, implement and assess materials and methods for epistemological learning in engineering content courses, and; (4) Develop broader understanding of personal epistemologies among engineering educators and engineering education researchers.