The role of CDIO in engineering education research: Combining usefulness and scholarliness

ABSTRACT

The CDIO Initiative is a community for engineering education development, but since 2016 its annual conference also calls for research. This paper considers possible roles for CDIO in the field of engineering education research (EER). The EER landscape is explored, in particular considering whether the aim of research is to seek knowledge to improve engineering education, or to seek knowledge for its own sake? Although usefulness and scholarliness are not mutually exclusive, the priority matters throughout the research process and in evaluating work. Introducing concepts from similar debates, this paper argues for embracing the tension, to form a productive relationship between scholarliness and usefulness. A dual objective is implied: usefully contributing to the improvement of engineering education and establishing a recognised research field enabling sustainable careers for researchers. Quality mechanisms are necessary for staking out borders and upholding standards, at least to weed out work that is neither scholarly nor useful.

KEYWORDS:

• The CDIO Initiative
• engineering education research
• engineering education development
• research aims
• academic discipline
• usefulness

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the input from numerous participants in workshops and seminars where these issues have been discussed during CDIO events, as well as the thoughtful and constructive reviewer comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Kristina Edström is an Associate Professor in Engineering Education Development at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, one of the original founders of CDIO. She has been active in the CDIO Initiative since 2001 and serves on the CDIO Council. In her research, she takes a critical approach to the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ of engineering education development.

ORCID

Kristina Edström http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8664-6854