UNDERSTANDING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AT THE GRADUATE LEVEL: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF DOCTORAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Abstract

Educational efforts that are centered on understanding the development of a holistic style engineering professional, via the transformation of engineering programs at the doctoral level, are vital for the successful generation of future engineers able to meet increasingly complex societal needs. Using a primarily theoretical approach, we analyzed how nine engineering education doctoral programs addressed characteristics of a transformative learning environment using the Four Attributes of Learning Environments from the \u200bHow People Learn model as the basis of comparison (Bransford et al., 1999). The nine, American university programs analyzed are unique in that they are the only doctoral programs for engineering education supported within a college of engineering identified in a national search. This analysis provides a comparative understanding of how these engineering education doctoral programs have transitioned from the traditional lecture-based culture into an environment that exists to cultivate the four interrelated attributes of successful, active learning.