Free ticketed event
This workshop will introduce participants to emerging ecosystem frameworks in engineering education and provide methods and tools to reexamine their own programs using the values, goals, and assessment metrics suggested by such frameworks.
It is well established that the outcomes and practices of engineering education are determined by more than the practice of engineering, disciplinary knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge and practice. Engineering education is also influenced to a large degree by the vision and beliefs people have about the purpose it serves in society; these beliefs affect what is taught, how students are educated, and what universities invest resources in. At the present time, deeply held “pipeline” metaphors underlie many of the policies and processes that affect the larger system of engineering education. The value of such metaphors arises from the help they provide faculty and administrators in effectively addressing complex realities in their day-to-day decision making. For example, the pipeline metaphor leads to a simple, actionable story: STEM will have a shortage of workers, putting the nation at competitive risk due to inefficiencies, or leaks, due to problems in retention. Recruiting women, people of color, and international students allows “untapped resources” to be accessed to address these shortages and improving educational practices addresses retention, thereby fixing “leaks”. The supply-side focus of this metaphor leads to policies focused on efficiency, recruitment, and retention.
Recently other metaphors have been introduced in STEM education that provide alternative perspectives to pipelines including frameworks base on educational pathways and educational ecosystems. These metaphors lead to different, potentially radically different, instantiations of STEM education programs. In this workshop participants will be introduced to an early-stage ecosystem framework that draws from ecological rather than factory or industrial metaphors. Briefly, the ecosystem-based framework that will be introduced prioritizes the well-being of agents (students, faculty, and staff) and overall health of the ecosystem; assessment metrics are derived from overall well-being and thriving rather than mandated outcomes.
The workshop will define a set of values drawn from the framework which are designed catalyze meaningful transformation in STEM education: prioritizing the well-being of the educational stakeholders; focusing on experiences rather than content delivery; recognizing that individuals develop at different paces, based on their particular circumstances, goals, and background; honoring the diverse cultural wealth and the complexion of multiple stakeholders; and an emphasis on multimodal teaching, learning, and assessment. Participants will learn how to adapt these frameworks to their own efforts in STEM education, build community and networks, and develop tools to communicate the impacts of adopting new frameworks to stakeholders within their own institution.
Alan Cheville studied optoelectronics and ultrafast optics at Rice University, followed by 14 years as a faculty member at Oklahoma State University working on terahertz frequencies and engineering education. While at Oklahoma State he developed courses in photonics and engineering design. After serving for two and a half years as a program director in engineering education at the National Science Foundation, he took a chair position in electrical engineering at Bucknell University. He is currently interested in engineering design education, engineering education policy, and the philosophy of engineering education.
Associate Dean for Equity and Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences, College of Science, Northeastern University
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University