Research: Building on Student Academic Engineering Knowledge to Unlock their Potential to Become Professional Engineers

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

Employer concerns about engineering graduates’ ability to apply the knowledge they gained in university education to real-world problems have been around perhaps for as long as universities have been educating engineering students. Many studies suggest that training students through real-world, authentic opportunities such as work-integrated learning experiences and capstone design courses mimicking industry practices better prepare them for professional practice. Unfortunately, workplace contexts vary from company to company and position to position, negating any notion of mimicking all workplaces and industry practices students could encounter. Some authentic learning practices unintentionally exclude students whose life circumstances prevent them from taking advantage of such experiences. This project begins from a different starting point because a focus on what students know, such as theory or skills that support professional judgment, can inadvertently obscure exploration of the nature of knowledge itself and its effects on student learning. To facilitate students’ transitions from education settings into the workforce, we need a better understanding of the organizing principles of knowledge which come into play when linking abstract theory to specific situations and applications. This project will contribute to the Research in the Formation of Engineers program by identifying teaching approaches instructors can use to better prepare students for the transition from education settings to the workforce. More broadly, this project is significant because it will explain how students learn what constitutes knowledge and how it is built – a skill they can apply in any knowledge-oriented context including professional work. The purpose of this research is to investigate the ability for undergraduate engineering students to translate engineering disciplinary knowledge acquired in tertiary education into professional settings to solve complex design problems. We call this process knowledge mobilization. We will apply a cutting-edge multi-dimensional conceptual framework for analyzing learning called Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to characterize knowledge mobilization. We will investigate knowledge mobilization practices of mechanical engineering students who engage in varying levels of open-ended design problems through three contexts having increasing levels of open-ended and multidisciplinary design problems: 1) a junior level design-oriented course, 2) an engineering internship experience; and 3) a capstone design experience. The research will contribute fundamental knowledge on the ways in which students successfully or unsuccessfully mobilize knowledge. This project is creative and original in that it will combine LCT, a relatively unused approach in North America, with interpretive qualitative methodologies to provide in-depth insights from participants to reveal the organizing principles that affect successful or unsuccessful mobilization of knowledge independent of the students’ level of understanding of the specific engineering concept. This knowledge structure perspective will build theory into the causes for student learning of engineering knowledge to remain locked within specific disciplines, such as fluid mechanics or solid mechanics. The outcomes of this research will enable instructors to orientate students more overtly towards the norms, values, and knowledge-oriented practices of engineering knowledge in professional settings. Outcomes include a professional development program to train students to use their engineering knowledge to solve problems in a professional setting. Unlike other professional development programs that teach specific skills such as interviewing, this program will develop a professional engineering metacognitive mindset to enable them to think beyond engineering theory and re-organize existing models so that they can adapt them in the face of novel and uncertain engineering situations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.