ENE 69500 - 015

Research in Engineering Education

1 credit, CRN 64802 (Fall 2014)

Thursdays, 9:30 - 10:20 am  

ARMS 3109

Instructor

Dr. Ruth Streveler, streveler@purdue.edu

Office Hours  - Thursdays, 1:15-3:15 pm, ARMS 1307

 

Course Description

Engineering education is an emerging profession that brings together methods, tools, and concepts from multiple disciplines.  In more established disciplines, areas of research and research methodologies are well defined and relatively stable even though new ideas are constantly emerging.  For new fields, entering graduate students need dedicated time to explore and learn about research trends and faculty interests so they can make informed choices about advising and program opportunities. At the same time, entering graduate students will be transitioning into new bodies of knowledge, methods, language, and concepts.  For some students this may require significant shifts in how they think about research and research designs.  Having opportunities to talk with the authors of research publications (e.g., faculty in the program) and hear the behind-the-scenes stories of the decisions that motivated the research and influenced the research design can ease the transition into new methodologies.  It can also help students link research findings to practical applications (implications stated or implied in a publication).

In addition, future engineering education professionals should be able to translate their own research into practice (i.e., a scholarship of application) and interpret other research into implications for their own scholarly work (research and teaching).  In this way, you will be both a producer and a consumer of knowledge.   This idea of “research implications” plays an important role in developing strategies for transforming engineering education.  For example, the idea of using evidence (research) to improve education practice is a central change strategy underlying discipline-based education research and efforts to “close the innovation to practice” gap.  Exploring how implications are represented in scholarly work (national reports and faculty publications) can provide insights into the challenges and opportunities for translating research into practice and transforming engineering education. 

In this one credit course, program faculty will select an example research publication from their own work (which students will read), lead a classroom discussion, and share the behind-the-scenes story about the research (the motivation and significance of the study, frameworks and methods, process for substantiating claims and identifying implications).  Faculty will also share their mentoring and advising philosophies.  In the process, students will be able to map out faculty research areas, identify different approaches to advising students, and gain experience in connecting research to practice.  Students should take this course in their first year of the graduate program. Concurrent enrollment in ENE 50100 001 is recommended. The course is also open to all graduate students in the program to encourage community within the program. 

Enduring Outcomes and Learning Objectives

The enduring outcomes of this course are for students to:

  1. Enhance their metacognitive awareness.
  2. Develop a comfortable and secure identify within the ENE community.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Identify members of the ENE faculty and describe their research interests and mentoring philosophies
  2. Generate questions to learn about the kinds of decisions involved in engineering education research
  3. Propose connections between research methodologies and research questions or motivations
  4. Propose connections between engineering education research (as an example of discipline-based education research) and engineering education practice (policy, learning environments, curriculum, etc.)
  5. Consider how faculty interests and mentoring approaches relate to your interests and mentoring needs

Grading Policy and Assignments

Assignment

Weight

Description

Weekly sharing and questions for visitors

50%

Weekly assignments will include:

(1) Reflecting on your learning of engineering education concepts and your place in the engineering education community in your private journal.

(2) Submitting a brief summary of your reflection on Blackboard by noon each Wednesday. Note that Blackboard posts will be visible to your class peers.   

(3) Reading through your classmates’ reflections by class time on Thursday.

(4) Preparing for class by (a) completing readings and (b) bringing questions to class.

(5) Participating actively in class.

Research group check list

10%

Create a checklist of needs and wants to help guide you in finding an appropriate research group. Note the emphasis on the word “group.” No one individual will fulfill all your needs. Create a group around you who fulfill various roles. This group can consist of an advisor, perhaps a co-advisor, committee members, and student colleagues.

In creating this checklist, think about the qualities and skills you value. Also consider your priorities. What is most important to you in a research group? What are “must haves” vs. “would be nice” qualities? Bring a hard copy to turn in in class on October 22. Since there are no “right” or “wrong” check list, this assignment will be graded as ‘done’ or ‘not done.’

Knowledge creation: Documenting your conceptual difficulties and how you overcame them

40%

Create a minimum of two double-spaced pages of text suitable to be included in a conference paper that is a follow-up to the conceptual hurdles article by Borrego (2007). The paper should (1) summarize what engineering education concepts were difficult for you to understand and (2) the strategies you used to make sense of this difficult information. Look particularly for any analogies and metaphors you used to tie this new engineering education information to your previous (technical) knowledge. Please bring a draft of your paper to class on December 11 to discuss with classmates. The final paper should be posted on the class Blackboard page no later than Friday, December 12, 2014 at 11:59 pm. 

As an out-of-class and after-class activity, you may be invited to co-author a paper for a conference (or other publication venue) led by Streveler and Pitterson.

The Learning Environment

Community Expectations

Students are expected to:

  1. Attend all classes.  If you must miss a class, please let us know and make arrangements with other class members for a summary and review.
  2. Fully engage in all classes. Full engagement requires reading and reflecting on all assigned materials by the assigned time, actively participating in class discussions and activities, and completing quality work.  Full engagement also means being attentive in class and limiting use of electronic devices to class-related activities such as taking notes or viewing slides.
  3. Act with civility and professionalism.
  4. Follow scholastic conduct policy: http://www.purdue.edu/univregs/pages/stu_conduct/stu_regulations.html
  5. Complete and submit a thoughtful online course evaluation.

Students can expect that the instructor will:

  1. Provide a supportive learning environment that fosters your success.
  2. Create assignments and exercises that are meaningful to you.
  3. Honor and respect your interests.

Academic Integrity Expectations

Academic integrity means honesty and responsibility in scholarship. All members of the academic community, faculty and students, are expected to obey rules of honest scholarship. Here are the basic assumptions about academic work at Purdue University:

  1. Students attend Purdue University in order to learn and grow.
  2. Academic assignments exist for the sake of this goal.
  3. Grades exist to show how fully the goal is attained.
  4. Thus, all work and all grades should result from the student’s own effort to learn and grow. Academic work completed any other way is pointless, and grades obtained any other way are fraudulent.

Academic integrity means understanding these basic rules, without which no university can exist. Academic misconduct (cheating) is not just “against the rules;” it destroys the mutual trust and respect that should exist between student and professor, and it is unfair to students who earn their grades honestly. 

Attendance Policy

You are expected to attend all scheduled classes unless you have contacted the instructor prior to the class. Excessive unexcused absences will result in deductions from your participation/attendance grade.

Tentative Schedule

Note that students are responsible to inform themselves about any changes/additions to this syllabus. 

Wk

Date

Topic

Faculty Stories

Readings (due)

Assignment (due)

1

Aug28

Course overview. Intellectual pivot points - Conceptual hurdles and overcoming them.

Your place within the community

N/A

 

 

2

Sept 4

Faculty visitors

Streveler and Adams

Borrego, 2007

See Blackboard

(1) Weekly reflection in your private reflective journal

(2) Blackboard: Share something from your weekly reflection with the class by noon on Wednesday and read others’ reflections by class time on Thursday

(3) Write questions for today’s guests and bring to class on index cards

3

Sept 11

Faculty visitors

Madhavan and Ohland

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

4

Sept 18

Faculty visitors

DeBoer and Godwin

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

5

Sept 25

Faculty visitors

Main and Purzer

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

6

Oct 2

Faculty visitors

Jesiek and Smith

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

7

Oct 9

Faculty visitors

Cox and Hynes

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

8

Oct 16

Faculty visitors

Loui and Cardella

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

Research group check list

9

Oct 23

Faculty visitors

 

Pawley and Berger

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

10

Oct 30

Cancel class for ENE Open House

N/A

N/A

N/A

11

Nov 6

Faculty visitors

Pilotte and Brown

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

12

Nov 13

Faculty visitors

Wankat and Oaks

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

13

Nov 20

Faculty visitors

Brophy and Duval-Couetil

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

14

Nov 27

Thanksgiving week –

No class

 

 

 

15

Dec 4

Faculty visitors

Moore and Magaña

See Blackboard

(1), (2), (3)

16

Dec 11

Share your draft of your conceptual hurdles paper with classmates

N/A

 

Your conceptual difficulties paper is due to be posted to Blackboard no later than Friday, December 12 at 11:59pm.

How to prepare for and be successful in this class

Faculty visitors

Faculty visitors will select one of their research articles that students will read prior to their visit. Ideally, articles will be posted to Blackboard one week prior to their scheduled visit.

What faculty visitors are asked to think about as they prepare to visit the class -

  • What is the backstory of the article you selected for students to read? From your experience with this article, what can you share with students about the "lived" experience of being an engineering education research? How might your experience vary from the very linear depiction of research often presented in textbooks?
  • What are the research questions that intrigue you and the approach(es) you take to answering those questions?

What students should think about as they prepare for and listen to faculty stories?

  • What surprises you about the backstory of the article?  Is the “lived” experience of the research process different than you expected?
  • How do the faculty visitors’ interests and fit with your research interests?
  • Are there approaches to answering research questions that are particularly appealing to you? Surprising to you? Totally new to you?
  • What do the stories tell you about faculty mentoring styles? What resonates with your mentoring needs?

Readings

Borrego, M. (2007). Conceptual difficulties experienced by trained engineers learning educational research methods. Journal of Engineering Education, 96 (2), 91-102.

READING TIP: This is a foundational reading for the “conceptual difficulties” paper. Skim for September 4 and read again more thoroughly during the semester. You will keep referring back to this paper to see how your own conceptual difficulties compare to what Borrego discovered.

Additionally, each faculty visitor will select one of their research articles to discuss with the class. The emphasis will be on the “backstory” of the article. By backstory, we mean things that you would not know just by reading the final product. These articles will be posted to the class Blackboard page. Ideally the articles will be available at least one week prior to the respective faculty visit.

READING TIP: When reading these articles students should pay particular attention to (1) research questions, (2) methods used to answer the research questions, (3) results (4) implications of the results and (5) how do the authors position the article within a theoretical framework?

Emergencies

In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances.  Should such an event occur, please consult the course website for further information. 

Nondiscrimination Policy Statement

Purdue University is committed to maintaining a community which recognizes and values the inherent worth and dignity of every person; fosters tolerance, sensitivity, understanding, and mutual respect among its members; and encourages each individual to strive to reach his or her own potential. In pursuit of its goal of academic excellence, the University seeks to develop and nurture diversity. The University believes that diversity among its many members strengthens the institution, stimulates creativity, promotes the exchange of ideas, and enriches campus life.

Purdue University prohibits discrimination against any member of the University community on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, disability, or status as a veteran. The University will conduct its programs, services and activities consistent with applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and orders and in conformance with the procedures and limitations as set forth in Executive Memorandum No. D-1, that provides specific contractual rights and remedies.

Reasonable Accommodation Policy

Any student in this course who has a disability that may prevent him/her from fully demonstrating his/her abilities should contact the instructor as soon as possible so we can discuss accommodations necessary to ensure full participation and facilitate your educational opportunities.