Keys to learning in specific subject areas of engineering education - an example from electrical engineering (original) (raw)

Most previous educational research on university teaching and learning has looked for generic principles, which could then be used to inform practice" . Research in engineering education has for example dealt with the alignment of assessment to the curriculum or progressive teaching/learning environments. Through research in specific subject areas it has been shown that there are specific "ways of thinking and practicing (WTP) in each subject area" (ibid). In science education the focus has been on students' views of single concepts. One of the common objectives in science and engineering education is "to learn relationships". In our research we have been investigating what we call complex concepts, i. e. concepts that make up a holistic system of "single" interrelated concepts. As in many disciplines we find "threshold concepts"[9], concepts which are transformative, irreversible, integrative and troublesome . These concepts are often recognized by teachers in a field, but we also suggest that it is possible by research to find "key concepts", but not in the sense that the term is often used in some educational contexts, as interchangeable with 'core' concepts, and meaning simply that the concepts are an important part of the prescribed syllabus. Here we use the term as a more precise metaphor to mean that the concept in question acts like a key to unlock the 'portal' of understanding. We use variation-theory [8] in order to find "key concepts", critical aspects that can act like a key to unlock the portal of understanding. In our paper we will describe how we have designed labwork in an electrical circuit course, taking the ideas behind threshold concepts and key concepts into our specific topic Transient Response as one example of how research into specific subject areas is made possible through qualitative research.