Advancing Student-Centered Teaching for Disciplinary Knowledge Building in Engineering

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This project aims to serve the national interest by improving student learning outcomes in engineering using student-centered teaching practices. This research and development investigation directly addresses two unresolved challenges in undergraduate STEM education: the slow adoption of effective instructional practices and the assumption that effective teaching is of a generalized form. The mixed methods participatory action research (PAR) study will examine the uptake of student-centered teaching in middle and upper level courses. Furthermore, the investigators seek to understand institutional change in engineering through guided reflection of an effort to integrate research and practice. The PAR approach entails scholarly reflection on knowledge and learning with a small team of exemplary faculty to accomplish a complex change agenda. These faculty are acknowledged for utilizing student-centered teaching practices within their courses and will be drawn from several engineering departments. In addition, faculty will engage in research that seeks to foster the development and continued support of a community of practice (CoP). This CoP intends to build on and contribute to an understanding of how disciplinary knowledge can transform undergraduate STEM education.The goals of this project are to (1) advance the understanding of the types of effective instructional practices used in middle and upper-level engineering classes to promote student learning of disciplinary knowledge and (2) support sustainable transformation of engineering education. The research is guided by the following questions: (1) What student-centered teaching approaches are used by exemplary engineering faculty to promote knowledge building in their courses? (2) How do these relate relate to faculty beliefs about teaching? (3) How can a sustainable community of practice translate these practices broadly across entire departments for improved student learning? The project team will examine the adoption and implementation of effective instructional practices to understand the types of such practices found in middle and upper level engineering classes, with an eye towards instantiating sustainable transformation of undergraduate STEM education. The investigation is based on the theoretical assumption that faculty’s philosophical beliefs concerning knowledge and learning are: enacted in practice; lead to expectations about student learning and achievement; and are grounded in disciplinary context. This project aims to foster broader uptake of these practices within and beyond the institution and will ultimately launch Virginia Tech’s Center for Teaching & Learning in Engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.