Writing to Learn:Reflective Practice in Engineering Design (original) (raw)

This paper examines the use of reflective writing as a learning activity intended to enhance the development of students’ lifelong learning skills and the formation of their identities as professional engineers within a new industry focused capstone mechanical engineering design course. Within the literature, educating engineering students to successfully grapple with the complexity of socio-technical problems as well as problems that do not yet exist is a critical challenge for engineering academics and requires a better understanding of the discipline specific qualities required to engage in lifelong learning. Using a range of linguistic analysis approaches, including thematic analysis, concordance analysis and Systemic Functional Grammar, evaluation of students’ written responses demonstrated the extent to which reflection enhances the depth of the learning process and provides insight into how students move from the role of the learner to that of graduate engineering practitioner. The results suggest a distinct difference between top and bottom performers in the course in the degree of self-efficacy as reflected in their level of agency, degree of comfort with owning their own learning and transitioning from a student to a professional identity. With further development and extended implementation throughout the curriculum, reflective writing has significant implications for the design of curriculum required for the future to develop student habits of lifelong learning.