This CCLI Phase 2 Expansion Project is examining how students' oral and written discourse influences their conceptual and metacognitive understanding of engineering. The project is using various instructional practices such as case studies and concept inventories to facilitate this conceptual understanding, particularly for second language learners. Faculty members who are scholars in discourse and literacy are collaborating with engineering faculty to follow a cohort of students that includes a large percentage of immigrant and language minority students through 5 engineering courses over three semesters. The project is being evaluated for students' understanding and synthesis of engineering concepts, faculty pedagogical practices, and the significance of a best practices model. Four other institutions are testing the model and the project is further disseminated through workshops at national level engineering education conferences. The project is advancing what we know about the impact of discourse and metacognition on the ability of all students, but especially linguistic and ethnic minority students, to learn engineering.
