Engineering Education and the Development of Expertise

TLDR

Engineering education has evolved, yet curricula and teaching methods remain misaligned with the goal of preparing graduates for 21st‑century challenges, prompting calls for further reform. This paper aims to link expertise‑development research to engineering education, outline compatible instructional practices, give concrete learning‑experience examples, and highlight implementation challenges. The authors synthesize literature on expertise development, student learning approaches, instructional responses, motivation, and dominant engineering teaching practices, and propose curriculum‑level design processes to improve alignment. Current expertise research suggests engineering education should provide learning experiences that build deep conceptual knowledge, fluent technical and professional skill application, and authentic project engagement.

Abstract

C ontributors Michael Alley, The Pennsylvania State University; Cindy Atman, University of Washington; David DiBiasio, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Cindy Finelli, University of Michigan; Heidi Diefes‐Dux, Purdue University; Anette Kolmos, Aalborg University; Donna Riley, Smith College; Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University; Maryellen Weimer, The Pennsylvania State University; Ken Yasuhara, University of Washington B ackground Although engineering education has evolved in ways that improve the readiness of graduates to meet the challenges of the twenty‐first century, national and international organizations continue to call for change. Future changes in engineering education should be guided by research on expertise and the learning processes that support its development. P urpose The goals of this paper are: to relate key findings from studies of the development of expertise to engineering education, to summarize instructional practices that are consistent with these findings, to provide examples of learning experiences that are consistent with these instructional practices, and finally, to identify challenges to implementing such learning experiences in engineering programs. S cope /M ethod The research synthesized for this article includes that on the development of expertise, students' approaches to learning, students' responses to instructional practices, and the role of motivation in learning. In addition, literature on the dominant teaching and learning practices in engineering education is used to frame some of the challenges to implementing alternative approaches to learning. C onclusion Current understanding of expertise, and the learning processes that develop it, indicates that engineering education should encompass a set of learning experiences that allow students to construct deep conceptual knowledge, to develop the ability to apply key technical and professional skills fluently, and to engage in a number of authentic engineering projects. Engineering curricula and teaching methods are often not well aligned with these goals. Curriculum‐level instructional design processes should be used to design and implement changes that will improve alignment.