From theory to application and back again: the interplay between research in higher education and engineering education
- Jenni Case, Virginia Tech & University of Cape Town
- Mike Klassen, University of Toronto
- David Knight, Virginia Tech
- Xiaofeng Denver Tang, Tsinghua University
- Nicky Wolmarans, University of Cape Town
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This webinar brings together a panel of higher education scholars who focus on engineering education across a range of global contexts, to identify what value or interest might be offered by engaging with the findings of discipline-based education research for the broader higher education research community. All four researchers take broad questions and theories from higher education and bring these to bear on a range of key issues in engineering education. Four engineering education research studies form the backdrop for this conversation: a global comparison of accreditation systems, a cross-national policy comparison, an exploration of how disciplinary knowledge functions in the real world, and an analysis of systems of transfer across institutions. We find that engineering education as a case has particular features that allow for the emergence of empirical insights, methodological adaptations, and challenges to established theory. These include its global systems for accreditation that nonetheless incorporate significant national variation, its significance in national policy particularly in relation to economic development and national security, its interesting location as a newer profession partly based on a tightly defined scientific knowledge base, and its contemporary recruitment to matters of social justice in the context of broadening access to higher education. More broadly, the webinar makes the case for grounding general theories and debates from higher education in the particulars of one specific professional field.
CGHE webinars are fully open to participants. They are interactive, enabling attendees to speak directly in the webinar, ask questions of speakers when called in by the chair and see all other participants. At any time you can communicate directly with others, either all together or on a one-to-one basis, through the webinar Chat.
Event Materials
This event is now archived and we are pleased to provide the following event media and assets, along with the original event overview.
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Jennifer Case is Professor and Head of the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech in the USA. Prior to her appointment in this post she was a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town, where she retains an honorary appointment. Her research especially on the student experience of learning as well as on topics around teaching and curriculum, has been widely published.
Mike Klassen is a PhD Candidate in Higher Education at the University of Toronto – Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. His PhD research draws on the sociology of education and the sociology of professions in a comparative study of professional accreditation in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, and Australia.
David Knight is Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Education and Special Assistant to the Dean for Strategic Plan Implementation at Virginia Tech. His research tends to be at the macro-scale, focused on a systems-level perspective of engineering education and considers the intersection between policy and organizational contexts.
Xiaofeng “Denver” Tang is Associate Professor and Associate Director for the Division of Engineering Education Research at Tsinghua University. Dr. Tang’s research interests include cross-national comparison of engineering education, engineering ethics, and entrepreneurial minded-learning in engineering. He received a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Nicky Wolmarans is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town. She researches the nature of professional knowledge, the form and logic it takes when deployed in practice. The research informs curriculum development aimed at scaffolding student’s learning to translate academic knowledge into a form that is useful in practice.
