This engineering education research project seeks to create and evaluate a trans-disciplinary learning environment that has been shown to be effective for engineers in order to build skills in leadership and reflective judgment. To create this environment the PIs plan to create an observation network for their learning environment that will serve as a model to engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders: educational practitioners, researchers, business interests, governmental representatives, and non-profit organizations. If successful, this project can serve as a model that could inform the practice of education through establishing a mechanism for rapid feedback of observation back to the classroom.
The broader significance and importance of this project is to provide a model that better integrates educational practice with educational research. The project uses a set of transdisciplinary courses that link engineering practice to larger societal concerns as the test-bed for the proposed observation network. Such courses have been shown to attract and retain under-represented students. The overall impact of the proposed work will, if successful, be to provide a model for tighter collaboration between those who research engineering education and those who apply research in the classroom.
