Engineering graduates professional formation: the connection between activity types and professional competencies

ABSTRACT

The professional formation of new graduates and their ability to perform well at the start of their career depends on the development of both technical skills and professional competencies. Whilst the latter aspects have become increasingly considered within engineering programs, they are often learnt within an academic context rather than a practice context. This is in contrast with research that argues that professional expertise should be learnt within the context in which it will be applied. This paper reports on an analysis of engineering student reflections on professional engagement activities over the duration of their university study. A text-based thematic analysis examines the link between different types of activities and professional competencies (using Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competencies), and the level of sophistication in the language using Blooms taxonomy. The thematic analysis provides strong evidence that different activity types result in students being more likely to reflect upon specific competencies. The deeper Bloom analysis showed that generally the activity types that have reflections skewed towards higher Bloom levels are those that involve project activities. We conclude that those activities that require student-driven exploration are the most likely to engage students in thinking about the nature of real-world engineering practice..

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering
• professional practice
• design
• reflections

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the substantial contributions of the wider team involved in the development and implementation of the Professional Engineering Program at the University of Sydney.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Lowe

David Lowe ([email protected]) earned his B.E. and PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney. He is currently Professor of Software Engineering, and from 2012 to 2019 was the Deputy Dean (Education), in the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Sydney. He has a passion for engineering education, particularly both engagement with professional practice and laboratory-based learning. He is a Principal Fellow of the HEA and was the recipient of the 2019 Australian Council of Engineering Deans National Award for Engineering Education Excellence.

Tom Goldfinch

Tom Goldfinch holds a PhD in Engineering Education from the University of Wollongong and is Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) at the University of Sydney. He was President of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education from 2016-2018 and Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Education. His research interests are around preparing graduates for engineering practice with a focus on qualitative studies of the social and cultural aspects of engineering education and practice. He also has a particular passion for building recognition of Australian Indigenous Perspectives and Knowledges in engineering practice.

Anthony Kadi

Anthony Kadi has a BE in electrical engineering and a ME in telecommunications engineering from the University of Technology Sydney. He has been an academic since 1996 and has a strong interest in engineering education, particularly in the area of development of professional practice. He is currently Director of Professional Practice and senior lecturer (education focused) at the University of Sydney, Faculty of Engineering. He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Keith Willey

Keith Willey ([email protected]) earned his B.E. and PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney and his Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from the University of Sydney. He is currently A/Professor of Engineering Leadership Education and the Head of the Integrated Engineering Program at The University of Sydney. He is a Principal Fellow of the HEA, an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow and SMIEE. Keith, an active Engineering Education Researcher also led the development of the self and peer assessment tool SPARK^PLUS.

Tim Wilkinson

Tim Wilkinson is the Associate Dean (Student Life) in the Faculty of Engineering and a lecturer in structural engineering. He has been teaching students in this field for 20 years and is widely recognised by his students for his teaching approach of being able to simplify engineering problems through visualisation, explanation, real life practical examples and his engaged delivery. He was recently accepted as a Senior Fellow of the HEA.