Action research: a methodology for transformative learning for a professor and his students in an engineering classroom

ABSTRACT

An engineering professor of a first-year thermodynamics course and a PhD student with a focus in engineering education in a large research university in Canada participated in an ethnographic action research study with the intention of increasing active learning in the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning. Unexpected findings included transformative changes to the professor’s epistemology of teaching and learning. Through the action research cycle of planning, implementing, observing, and critically reflecting, modifications were made to the instructional strategies and the learning environment that created a micro engineering community of practice where both students and teaching assistants engaged in deep learning and legitimate peripheral participation on the trajectory to ‘becoming engineers’. Qualitative interview data from the professor, three students, and three teaching assistants are analysed through approaches to learning research and situated learning theory. Engaging in action research had profound repercussions in this case. The authors make the argument for action research as a catalyst for transformative learning required for teachers to engage students in the twenty-first century classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Transformative learning
• community of practice
• engineering education
• action research
• situated cognition theory

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the students and teaching assistants who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Jillian Seniuk Cicek, BFA, MFA (visual arts), MFA (English), B.Ed., is a PhD Candidate with a focus in engineering education in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada. She is a research assistant and sessional instructor currently teaching engineering communication for the Department of Biosystems Engineering and the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education in the Faculty of Engineering. Her research areas include outcomes-based teaching and assessment methods and tools, graduate attributes, student-centred instruction, and engineering students’ identity.

Douglas Ruth, P. Eng., PhD, is currently a Professor and Dean Emeritus, Associate Dean (Design Education), NSERC Chair in Design Engineering, and Director of the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education at the University of Manitoba, Canada. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and Engineers Canada, and a Technical Achievement Award holder from the Society of Core Analyst. Doug is dedicated to the application of science and engineering principles, and the betterment of engineering education through research and practice. He is a shameless promoter of ‘all things engineering’.

Sandra Ingram, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education and Adjunct Professor in Biosystems Engineering at the University of Manitoba. Responsible for teaching a standalone course in engineering communication, Dr Ingram is the first instructor in the faculty to also integrate the teaching of communication into the engineering curriculum through the Biosystems design trilogy. Her current research continues to focus on professional skill development among students and practicing engineers investigating the intersection of two major areas: women in engineering and experiential education programmes (co-op and service learning).

Marcia Friesen, P.Eng., PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice & Engineering Education and Adjunct Professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Her research interests include Health application development, agent-based modelling, as well as qualifications recognition processes for immigrant professionals and the nature of professional culture and identity.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded through the NSERC Chair in Design Engineering program at the University of Manitoba.