Systematic and Sustainable Reform in Engineering Education

In our global society, with its increasing technological demands and opportunities, engineering education plays an undeniably significant role. Professional preparation is a core ingredient for cultivating the engineering and technology talent required for economic and industrial success (ASEE 1994). According to the highest levels of leadership in the engineering community, however, engineering education has not kept up with the sweeping changes in engineering practices and, instead, continues to prepare students to be engineers for a world one or two generations past (Wulf 1998). This raises a question: How can we, as a community, promote systemic change to the educational process by taking advantage of our profession as promoters of discovery, learning, and engagement? The path to success is just beginning to take shape.

A national awareness regarding engineering education reform is driving the need to establish the field of engineering education as a scholarly endeavor. The challenge facing engineering education cannot be met by simply modifying an outmoded curriculum. We need fundamental research that also transforms learning and teaching. As the National Research Council stated so well in 2002 (Shavelson and Towne 2002), “No one would think of getting to the moon or wiping out a disease without research. Likewise, one cannot expect reform efforts in education to have significant effects without research-based knowledge to guide them.” The National Academy of Engineering has recently become both vocal and proactive in sponsoring new initiatives to support innovative work in engineering education (Wulf and Fisher 2002). Couple this with the adoption of Engineering Criteria 2000 by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the National Science Foundation’s support for educational research, and publication of The Engineer of 2020 (NAE 2004), and the stage has been set to substantively elevate the status of educational research in faculty performance reviews, improve engineering educational research quality by demanding appropriate assessment, attract engineering professors into the field, and increase collaborations between engineering faculty and faculty in other areas including education and psychology, among others.

The recently created Department of Engineering Education at Purdue University owes its existence to the premise that engineering education is an important and promising field of scholarly activity. Discovery and scholarship of engineering education as a new and exciting intellectual direction will significantly impact the nation’s science and technology agenda by preparing the future cadre of engineering education leaders. These efforts at Purdue as well as similar efforts at other institutions present institutional frameworks for this new academic field.

Our goal is to develop a new cadre of diverse faculty and education leaders through the creation of innovative graduate programs focused on engineering education and cutting-edge educational research. Our department will focus on

Engineering Education faculty will be evaluated and rewarded by the same structure and measures as other engineering faculty. Their performance will be measured in the context of their contributions to research in engineering education, teaching performance, and service to the community based on their record of accomplishments and national and international recognition in engineering education. Research in engineering education will be as valued as technical research for promotion and tenure considerations.

Recently, ASCE (ASCE 1994) added sustainability to the Fundamental Canons of their Code of Ethics. The first canon now reads, “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties. ASCE has set the goal of sustainable engineering education and practice, and in pursuit of this goal, co-sponsors the Engineers Forum on Sustainability with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).”

We propose adding sustainability to our list of fundamental concerns. Specifically, we propose pursuing the question, “How can we create high-quality, sustainable learning and working environments?”

Creating sustainable learning and working environments requires not only new thinking and creativity, but also leadership. We can think of no better definition of sustainability, and the implications for leadership, than that offered by Michael Fullan (2005):

We look forward to seeing and benefiting from ASCE’s leadership in attaining sustainable learning and working environments.

Open dialogue and support within the engineering community and beyond will be critical for the success of such endeavors. The broader engineering community needs to engage in a national dialogue and find ways to support this initiative. Engineering professional societies like ASEE and ASCE, scholarly journals such as The Journal of Engineering Education, the National Science Foundation, ABET, and the National Academy of Engineers are key entities in this discussion. For greatest impact, the engineering education community must be increasingly inclusive of and accessible to math, science, and technology educators and researchers. A new opportunity is at hand for engineering education to be more broadly recognized as a scholarly field of activity. We encourage input and discussion at all academic and institutional levels as we forge ahead. What challenge could be greater or more rewarding than to successfully direct how we educate and prepare our future engineering leaders?