Representation of Engineering Concepts in Academic and Engineering Workplace Settings: How situated are engineering concepts in these contexts?

这个项目的目的是研究建筑设计概念如何在学术和工作环境中表现出来。概念是基本的想法，往往是学术课程的基础。概念的例子是对结构构件（如梁或柱）受载时产生的应力和应变的理解。学术环境中的常见做法是将概念呈现为相关变量之间的关系，并理解如何确定封闭式问题中的未知变量。然而，在工程实践中，概念被用来进行工程设计，在项目的限制。工程概念可以嵌入设计规范，设计软件，以及其他方式，其中概念的特征与学术环境不同。这个项目将研究概念如何在学术和工作环境中表现。研究结果将用于迭代开发工程设计问题，是相关的工程实践和有用的土木工程教师。这些问题将通过土木工程和工程教育界积极传播。研究结果将为当前的教育方法提供信息，通过研究构成工程课程的基本概念，为工程师的劳动力做好准备。本项目的目标是调查在土木工程实践和学术环境中，使用强大的，深入的，和迭代的教育研究方法。该项目将在工程工作环境中检查和测试情境认知理论，并挑战工程教育的基本前提，即倾向于将概念与应用隔离开来。研究目标将通过三方面努力实现：1 -使用德尔菲法与执业土木工程师和土木工程学院一起制定与建筑设计相关的结构和岩土工程概念的优先列表，2 -理解并比较结构和岩土工程概念在真实工作场所和学术环境中的代表性，使用人种学知情的研究方法，包括参与者观察，正式和非正式的访谈，和文件分析，和3 -迭代开发的问题和解决方案，结构和岩土工程师和教师认为是真实的建筑设计，教师愿意采用到他们的课程。这项研究将是第一个比较学术和工作场所环境中的概念表示，特别是在建筑设计的跨学科环境中。该项目的预期成果是详细说明学术和工作场所环境的概念表示的差异，以及它们对情境学习理论和工作场所工程师的准备意味着什么。家庭作业，课堂上，和测试问题创建将提高工程专业学生的概念意识，因为他们将其应用到多种实际情况。

The purpose of this project is to examine how building design concepts are represented in academic and workplace settings. Concepts are basic ideas that are often the foundation of academic courses. Examples of concepts are an understanding of the stresses and strains that occur when a structural member, such as a beam or column is loaded. Common practice in academic settings is to present concepts as the relation between relevant variables and understanding how to determine unknown variables in close-ended problems. In engineering practice, however, concepts are utilized to conduct engineering design, within project constraints. Engineering concepts can be embedded in design codes, design software, and in other ways where the characteristics of the concepts are not represented in the same way as the academic setting. This project will study how concepts are represented in academic and workplace settings. Research findings will be used to iteratively develop engineering design problems that are relevant to engineering practice and useful to civil engineering instructors. These problems will be actively disseminated through the civil engineering and engineering education communities. The results will inform current educational approaches to preparing engineers for the workforce by studying the fundamental concepts that make up engineering curricula.The objective of this project is to investigate the nuanced and complex ways of knowing, representing, and communicating concepts of structural and geotechnical engineering concepts specific to building design in both civil engineering practice and academic settings using robust, in-depth, and iterative educational research methodologies. The project will examine and test theories of situated cognition in an engineering work setting, as well as challenge the fundamental premises of engineering education that tend to isolate concepts from application. The research objective will be achieved through three efforts: 1 - Develop a prioritized list of structural and geotechnical engineering concepts related to building design with practicing civil engineers and civil engineering faculty using the Delphi method, 2 - Understand and compare the representation of structural and geotechnical engineering concepts in building design within authentic workplace and academic settings using ethnographically informed research methods, including participant observation, formal and informal interviews, and document analysis, and 3 - Iteratively develop problems and solutions that structural and geotechnical engineers and faculty deem as authentic to building design, and that faculty are willing to adopt into their curriculum. This study will be the first to compare the representation of concepts in academic and workplace settings, specifically within the interdisciplinary environment of building design. The expected outcomes of this project are detailed accounts of differences in concept representation of academic and workplace settings and what they mean for theories of situated learning and for the preparation of engineers for the workplace. Homework, in-class, and test problems created will enhance engineering students' awareness of concepts as they apply them to multiple practical contexts.