Jillian Seniuk Cicek

INVESTIGATING THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF THE CEAB GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES: STUDY DESIGN AND INITIAL FINDINGS

This study represents the PhD thesis research of the lead author. The greater study is designed as a mixed-methods explanatory case study. The overarching objective is to explore whether the CEAB graduate attributes are emphasized in the engineering programs in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba in the most optimal way. The first phase of the study is designed to determine the relative importance and the levels of dependencies of the graduate attributes across three engineering stakeholder groups: faculty, students, and industry members. In this paper, the design and methodology of the first phase of this mixed methods research study are explained, and the preliminary findings from the participation rates and participants’ familiarity with the graduate attributes on the survey data are presented. Results show that a sizable percentage of students, faculty and industry members are not highly familiar with the CEAB graduate attributes. Therefore, work to develop a common knowledge about the CEAB graduate attributes needs to continue.

Action research: a methodology for transformative learning for a professor and his students in an engineering classroom

ABSTRACT An engineering professor of a first-year thermodynamics course and a PhD student with a focus in engineering education in a large research university in Canada participated in an ethnographic action research study with the intention of increasing active learning in the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning. Unexpected findings included transformative changes to the professor’s epistemology of teaching and learning. Through the action research cycle of planning, implementing, observing, and critically reflecting, modifications were made to the instructional strategies and the learning environment that created a micro engineering community of practice where both students and teaching assistants engaged in deep learning and legitimate peripheral participation on the trajectory to ‘becoming engineers’. Qualitative interview data from the professor, three students, and three teaching assistants are analysed through approaches to learning research and situated learning theory. Engaging in action research had profound repercussions in this case. The authors make the argument for action research as a catalyst for transformative learning required for teachers to engage students in the twenty-first century classroom.