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Empathy and care influence aspects of engineering practice including collaboration and teamwork, stakeholder engagement, and quality of work. Empathy has been identified as a key employability skill for professionals, and is the foundation for many skills and attributes anticipated as required by future engineers. Therefore, the understanding of empathy and care, and consideration of the development of empathetic and caring competencies are increasingly relevant for engineering education. Recent studies have explored the conceptualisation of and value placed on empathy and care in engineering practice, from the perspectives of practicing engineers in US and German contexts. We broaden this to include the Australian setting. Engineers’ perceptions of empathy and care within Australian engineering practice were collected using an online version of the Empathy and Care Questionnaire (ECQ) instrument developed by Hess, Strobel, Pan and Wachter Morris (N = 183). Statistical analysis of survey questions relating to the perceived importance and benefits of empathy and care to engineers, and relevance within a range of engineering practice situations was undertaken. Analysis of gender, years of experience, and organisational role indicated that female engineers perceived empathy and care to be more important, and more impactful on engineering practice than male engineers. Perceptions of empathy and care did not vary with duration of engineering work experience, however engineers in positions of organisational leadership placed greater importance on empathy and care in their roles than others. These differences contrast with results of the US and German studies. Further analysis is required to understand where, when and why these differences occur.

Early career experiences provide the foundation for career progression and inform career choices and decisions. For women in the engineering profession, positive early career experiences have been linked to persistence and retention within the profession A recent focus on early careers within engineering has provided insight into early career role types and related competencies, competency and capability gaps experienced by novice engineers, and their perceptions of meaningful engineering work. There is opportunity to diversify and contextualise this understanding by exploring early career experiences of women working within the engineering profession, and by considering the influence of gender on early career experiences and decisions. This paper reports on an empirical investigation of the career experiences of 22 women engineers in senior roles within engineering organisations in the Australian context. Phenomenological and temporal analysis of their career reflections provides evidence of three early career patterns of varied sequence and focus. The influences shaping these career paths are described. By making explicit possible, diverse early career paths, determinants and outcomes, this paper aims to continue to bridge the engineering education-practice gap and to contribute to greater equality, diversity, and inclusion within the profession.

Signal processing is an engineering discipline known to involve abstract and complex concepts. Curriculum development should be informed by an understanding of the most critical and challenging learning in the field. Threshold concept theory and threshold capability theory provide a framework describing the features of the most critical and challenging learning in any discipline. The framework describes the effort of overcoming thresholds as troublesome, with a process that is often messy and long. Five coursework master's students, six postgraduate research students, and five academics were interviewed about their experiences with threshold concepts in signal processing. Two major threshold concepts were identified: time-frequency transformation and discretization. Self-regulated learning through years was needed to overcome the thresholds. Based on students' comments, the following are recommended to support learning in signal processing: integrated units, an introduction to how signals can be represented and why signal processing is used, examples of real applications, visualizations, practical laboratory exercises with prework, small applied projects throughout units, ample sample problems, the development of learning communities through consistent class groups, and opportunities to ask questions. Coursework and research students reported developing efficacy in self-directed learning as a consequence of overcoming threshold learning in signal processing.

A barrier to using head mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) in education is access to hardware for large classes. This paper compares students’ learning when engaging with an HMD VR simulation as the operator and as the observer, to evaluate whether benefits of HMD VR can be achieved without requiring all students to operate the equipment. Postgraduate engineering students (N = 117) completed a safety hazard identification exercise in a workshop. The performance of students who operated and observed was compared. Results showed that students performed similarly in the exercise that followed the simulation whether they operated HMD VR (n = 33) or observed (n = 84). The finding suggests that educators may be able to use HMD VR simulations in classes with a large enrolment, by reducing the need for investment and management of a large number of sets of HMD VR equipment. Implications for practice or policy: Engineering educators can use HMD VR simulations to teach students about safety in design. Engineering students are able to identify safety hazards in a HMD VR simulation effectively whether they are operating the equipment or observing another student in their group operating the VR equipment. One HMD VR set per student group is sufficient. HMD VR simulations can be used inclusively, even when some students are unable or unwilling to wear the headset.

Engineering professionals are expected to conduct their work in an ethical manner. However, students may receive limited instruction on ethics and demonstrate resistance to learning about ethics in practice, contributing to graduates being ill-prepared to face ethical dilemmas in the workplace. This study investigated the nascent learning by engineering students (N = 183) about the relevance of ethics to engineering practice in a two-hour workshop that included recounts of experiences that were of immediate relevance to engineering interns and graduates, through use of videos and a serious game. Thematic analysis of qualitative responses highlighted that students gained understanding of how ethics influences engineering practice in general, and how ethical issues influence the work of engineering professionals. Exposing students to the presence of ethical issues in practice through immediately relevant examples early during their studies is likely to improve the way they approach ethics throughout their studies, and subsequently, the workplace.

© 2019, © 2019 Association for Tertiary Education Management and the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management. Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is embraced in Australian higher education (HE) and is a feature of most Australian HE ‘entry to profession’ engineering education programs accredited by Engineers Australia. Accreditation guidelines articulate the need for curriculum-integrated engagement with professional practice (EPP) and encourage EPP in a separate workplace environment, e.g. WIL. This article reports on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with staff and student engineers from four Australian HE institutions with mandatory engineering WIL. Framed by a Bourdieusian theoretical perspective, the influence of capitals on student access to engineering WIL placements was investigated. The research found that students’ capitals influenced access to engineering WIL placements. Policy and educational practice recommendations are made.

Industry engagement, commonly implemented as a 12 week industry placement during a vacation towards the end of the degree, has traditionally been a provider-mandated component of externally accredited professional engineering degrees in Australia. Such placements are intended to bridge knowledge and capability gaps between academic study and engineering employment and contextualise the final phase of academic study. Changes in the composition of Australia’s engineering industries have made it progressively harder to source such placements. In-curriculum exposure to engineering practice has also been expected, but has been delivered with considerable variability. In 2014 the authors completed a national project, led by the Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED), with peak industry bodies and several partner universities, funded from the Commonwealth Department of Industry Workplace Innovation Program, to explore how improving industry engagement could contribute further to engineering graduates’ learning outcomes and employability. The data collected from the engineering students and employers, reported in this paper, can now be regarded as baseline data on industry engagement, against which subsequent developments can be referenced. For the first time, students’ ratings of the value of different methods for industry engagement are shown to be related to their ‘authenticity’. Several industry-inspired in-curriculum interventions were also trialled at partner universities. Guidelines for good practice were developed from melding the experiential findings with theoretical perspectives. In the years since completing the project, the accreditation body, Engineers Australia, has updated and intensified its focus on engagement with practice (including changing its language from ‘exposure’ to ‘engagement’), and many engineering faculties have significantly enhanced their models and requirements for work integrated learning and industry engagement. This paper outlines these changes and examples of new implementations, including virtual and electronically-mediated methods that also reflect ongoing changes in engineering industry practice.

The global COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid shift by universities to online and remote education. This paper contributes to understanding of gender inclusive learning in face to face and virtual educational environments, specifically in the context of teamwork within engineering and computer science classes. Students’ experiences and perceptions of gender inclusive teamwork before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were collected using an online survey (N = 217). A principal component analysis revealed five components in students’ reported experiences: Psychological Safety, Perceptions of the Facilitator, Confidence, Respect for Diversity, and Perceived Fairness. A multivariate analysis of covariance with gender and semester (before or during COVID-19) as the independent variables and age as the covariance found main effects only. Students’ perceived psychological safety and confidence were higher in the online teamwork during COVID-19 than in the previous semester of face-to-face teamwork. The result is reassuring, as it indicates, consistent with other literature, that inclusion in student teamwork is likely to be improved when online elements are introduced.

Little is known about women engineers’ career advancement, the factors that support their progression, or the role that formal education plays in women engineers’ career advancement. Phenomenological analysis of interviews with women engineers in Australia revealed individual, relational and structural influences acting concurrently and interactively that determine, facilitate and constrain their transitions to manager and leader. Building knowledge and skill occurred through combinations of on-the-job learning, and professional development, including formal education. These approaches provided valuable individual and relational resources for women, enabling them to navigate structural obstacles. However, formal education beyond the undergraduate degree was not the primary approach taken by women engineers to support career advancement. Implications for engineering education are discussed.

Australian universities have a remit to produce work-ready graduates and engage students from equity groups. In engineering education, accredited Australian programs commonly respond to Engineers Australia’s required engagement with professional practice by mandating completion of a specified number of hours in work-integrated learning (WIL) placements as a graduation requirement. Placements are frequently self-sourced, under/unpaid, full-time and available at set times. These conditions, largely beyond students’ control, limit options for students supporting themselves through paid work and for students with family commitments. In an investigation framed by the theory of practice architectures, we addressed the question: What are the institutional preconditions shaping WIL placement practices that enable and constrain particular students’ access to, experience in, and leverage of professional learning at work for their future careers? Our analysis of three individual student interviews identified key student practices—applying for, doing, and leveraging placements—that are enabled and constrained by material-economic arrangements in family, university and work life, cultural-discursive arrangements in career development activities and social-political arrangements in personal and engineering networks. Identifying this architecture of practices is an important step towards an equitable transformation of WIL engineering placements.

Many of the papers in this special issue have been developed from presentations at the 2015 Research in Engineering Symposium (REES) in Dublin. This symposium was held in collaboration with the Res...

It is becoming increasingly clear that if we are to address intangible and global problems such as the interconnections of climate change and poverty, all professions, including engineering...

© 2017 SEFI. Women remain severely under-represented in engineering in Australia as in all Western countries. This limits the pool of talent, standpoints and approaches within the profession. Furthermore, this under-representation equates to restriction of the benefits of being an engineer mainly to men. Gendered workplace experiences have been found to contribute to women leaving the profession. In this study we explore students’ experiences of gendered cultures in engineering workplaces, using interviews with a purposive sample of 13 students (4 male) recruited following a previous survey. Although the overall experience of workplace learning is positive for many students, male and female engineering students reported experiences consistent with masculine cultures. Educators and employers must proactively lead improvements to the culture in engineering workplaces, prepare students for gendered workplaces and support students to reflect during and after workplace experiences. The experiences presented here could be adapted to enhance inclusivity training.

Authors of papers in this special issue, Agents of Change, have reported studies that readers will find valuable in informing positive change in engineering education. The papers are expanded from ...

Service-learning is a common component of many humanitarian engineering education programs. Students engage with external organisations and communities, often spending time intensively, on projects linked to their studies. To help prepare students for substantial service-learning initiatives a dedicated humanitarian engineering course was developed. To better represent service-learning and enable a greater variety of teaching and learning activities, the course was delivered over five weeks using intensive mode teaching. This enabled a portion of the class to be involved with a two-week scaffolded immersive international experience running in parallel to the campus delivery. Threshold concept and capability theory was used to evaluate the course and identify what elements of the course supported or hindered development of student thresholds. Results identified the main student threshold to be the ability to take account of social factors in engineering design and the activities enabled by the intensive mode teaching were among the strongest contributions to the achievement of this threshold, in particular elements of the international experience. This highlights the opportunities for intensive mode teaching in supporting activities related to service-learning.

In this study, we worked with second-year engineering students at an Australian university to examine previously identified threshold concepts within the theoretical framework of Possible Selves. Using workshops as the context for intensive work with students, students were encouraged to consider their future lives and work, including their engineering fears, expectations, and aspirations. The findings revealed many students to have a poor understanding of the realities of engineering work. Moreover, perceived gaps between self-efficacy and the requirements of engineering work appeared to be motivating if students deemed it possible to reduce the gap, but demotivating if they identified a characteristic over which there was perceived to be no control. The study suggests that these engineering students needed more opportunities to explore both the roles of engineers and their own possible selves. Overall, the findings indicate that higher education students may need encouragement and support to exp...

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore: student perceptions of threshold concepts and capabilities in postgraduate business education, and the potential impacts of intensive modes of teaching on student understanding of threshold concepts and development of threshold capabilities.Design/methodology/approach– The student experience of learning was studied in two business units: strategic management, and accounting. The method involved two phases. In the first, students and unit coordinators identified and justified potential threshold concepts and capabilities. In the second, themes were rationalized.Findings– Significantly more so in intensive mode, the opportunity to ask questions was reported by student participants to support their development of the nominated threshold capabilities. This and other factors reported by students to support their learning in intensive mode are consistent with supporting students to traverse the liminal space within the limited time available in intensive mode.Research limitations/implications– Respondents from future cohorts will address the small participant numbers. Studies in only two units are reported. Studies in other disciplines are presented elsewhere.Practical implications– The findings will be important to educators using intensive mode teaching in business, and researchers working within the framework.Originality/value– This is the first study to explore the potential impacts of intensive modes of teaching on student understanding of threshold concepts and development of threshold capabilities.

With technology increasingly ubiquitous and powerful, educators carry responsibility to society to support students to become graduates who practice ethically and lead ethical practice. In Volume 2...

Engineering educators should motivate and support students in developing not only technical competence but also professional competence including commitment to excellence. We developed an authentic assessment to improve students’ understanding of the importance of ‘perfection’ in engineering – whereby 50% good enough will not be acceptable in industry. Subsequently we aimed to motivate them to practise performing at their best when they practice engineering. Students in a third-year mechanical and mechatronic engineering unit completed a team design project designed with authentic assessment features to replicate industry expectations and a novel marking scheme to encourage the pursuit of excellence. We report mixed responses from students. Students’ ratings of their levels of effort on this assessment indicate that many perceived a positive influence on their effort. However, students’ comments included several that were consistent with students experiencing the assessment as alienating.

To society’s detriment, women remain under-represented among engineering students and practicing engineers in Australia. Many studies have shown that engineering workplaces have features that are not gender inclusive. Efforts to improve engineering education by increasing industry engagement might therefore also result in non-inclusive student experiences, with potentially detrimental outcomes. This study reports on a pilot investigation of the gender inclusivity of industry engagement by student engineers. We explored experiences of exposure to engineering practice by students who were studying at an urban Australian university. The study used the framework of possible selves, which examines the factors that motivate people to achieve or avoid possible future selves [Markus, H., and P. Nurius. 1986. “Possible Selves.” American Psychologist 41: 954–969.]. Through interviews with four female and two male engineering students, we discovered gendered encounters experienced by students and the impacts...

Threshold concepts are transformative disciplinary concepts. They are critical to students' progress and often troublesome for students. In this study we explored two potential threshold concepts: namely “roles of engineers” and “value of learning”. Adopting a workshop format, the study trialled strategies that might help students overcome these threshold concepts. During the workshops, second-year students at an Australian university considered their motivations for studying engineering, their perceptions of engineering work, and their life and career identities at that point and into the future. Questions aligned with each activity were designed to determine whether students found these considerations transformative or troublesome. Analysis of students' responses using a threshold concept framework revealed the students to be troubled by their lack of insight about the characteristics of engineering work. Students were also troubled by perceived gaps between the attributes of engineers and their...

In Australia, final year Bachelor of Engineering students complete an engineering research project. A small number of students (often between four and ten at any one university) elect topics in the field of engineering education. Relative to research in technical engineering, the insulated status of engineering education research can leave these students feeling isolated from other final year engineering students and faculty members. In 2013, we saw an opportunity to engage final year students and academics from two universities in a project to enhance industry engagement in engineering education. We established a research group of nine students and supervisors across the two universities. Each week the group met on campus and joined peers at the other university via a free Internet telephony service. Drawing on the reflections of community members, this chapter reports on the learning community that emerged within this project and the features that supported it. Critical to the community’s success were the regular meetings, the shared knowledge domain of engineering education, the commitment, diversity and quality of team-members, and engagement with the wider faculty and engineering education communities. Students and supervisors learned from and with each other and generated knowledge about the topic, collaboration, disciplines, research and themselves.

Engineering curricula have expanded in recent decades. In addition to science and technical engineering, they now include several non-technical competencies. This is a trend reinforced by programme accreditation. The authors take the viewpoint that it is important to ensure that graduates have the competencies they will require for their work. The following question is addressed: What are the generic competencies that engineers graduating in Australia require for their work as engineers? Competencies were identified from a broad range of literature and then rated by 300 established engineers for importance to their jobs. The results indicated that non-technical, attitudinal and technical competencies were perceived to be important. Eleven competency factors were revealed empirically. Profiles of these competency factors among graduates would assist evaluation and improvement of engineering programmes. This is the first quantitative study conducted in Australia that encompassed all engineering disciplines ...

Engineering education needs to develop the competencies required for engineering work, and attract and retain students from diverse backgrounds. This study investigated the possibility that the perceived importance of competencies is subconsciously influenced by gendered assumptions, and as a consequence, this lowers the status given to stereotypically feminine competencies. In two surveys, engineers rated the importance of 64 competencies. The ratings made by the first sample were assumed to be relatively unaffected by gender typing. However, engineers in the second sample were asked to think of a typical engineering job, and therefore their responses were more likely to have been affected by gender typing. Results confirmed that there are stereotypically feminine competencies that are important to engineering, and suggested that senior male engineers in the study gender typed engineering jobs, consequently under-rating the importance of some stereotypically feminine competencies recently added to the en...

Continuous improvement of engineering education is achieved through curriculum development, program evaluation, and program accreditation processes. This chapter is based on the view that one of the criteria for design of these should be alignment with the competencies required by engineers in the workplace. The chapter provides an 11-factor competency model developed in Australia to help achieve this alignment. The model describes the generic engineering competencies required by engineers graduating in Australia. The competencies embed inter-related technical and non-technical components. An advantage of this model over others is the concise and relatively distinct nature of the 11 factors due to the statistical rather than conceptual method of grouping the competencies. The chapter outlines the theoretical framework, the model, and its development. The research methods employed to develop the model include a literature review, a panel session, two large-scale surveys of engineers, and a focus group. Implications for curriculum design, accreditation, and program evaluation are discussed.

This paper contributes to understanding of the generic engineering competencies required by engineers graduating in Australia and to competency theory. The Competencies of Engineering Graduates (CEG) Project was conducted to identify the generic engineering competencies required by engineers graduating in Australia. The methodology adapted a theoretical framework for understanding key competencies developed by the Definition and Selection of Competencies Project commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The phases of the CEG Project included a literature review, a panel session, two large-scale surveys and a focus group. By reflecting on the whole CEG Project, this paper provides insight into the nature of competencies required by engineers in Australia. Implications for engineering educators are described.

SummaryEngineering education in Australia continues to evolve. This study asks: “Are current changes to engineering education consistent with competence deficiencies in engineering graduates perceived by engineers ? “The method is different from previous international and Australian studies, and the findings are consistent with the results of previous studies. Practical engineering competencies and engineering business competencies featured strongly. The findings support continuation of current trends in the evolution of engineering education: cultural change, broadening of curricula, and introduction of non-traditional pedagogies, assessments and learning environments.

CONTEXT Internships, one type of Work Integrated Learning (WIL), are an important part of the development of employability competencies. Research across professions other than engineering has indicated that unpaid internships may be subject to class based privilege and induce financial stress. Educational practices in engineering enabling unpaid internships may further disadvantage students from equity groups: low socio economic status, disability, culturally or linguistically diverse, rural or remote students, and women in non-traditional areas. PURPOSE Funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, the extent of unpaid work placements, the role of positive social capital, accessibility and barriers to successful WIL for equity group students are being examined. We ask how the practices of the engineering industry and higher education community may embrace diversity by facilitating access to successful WIL opportunities. Successful WIL is identified by enhanced career, education or employability prospects, and positive student wellbeing. APPROACH The mixed-methods study includes: interviews; a survey including free-response questions and a resilience instrument; and analysis of students’ reflective reports. Seven participants interviewed to date have related their experiences of engineering-related internships; how they secured positons, the quality of their experiences, whether they were paid, and the impact of these experiences on their approach to their engineering education, career progression and well-being. These seven participants shared perceptions of over 17 internships of which six were unpaid. Preliminary insights from these initial interviews and free-responses from the first round of surveys only are reported in this paper. The outcomes from an integrated data analysis process incorporating: further interviews; survey data including the resilience instrument data; and reflective reports, will be published by the funding body at the conclusion of the study. RESULTS Interviewees to date have largely capitalized on their family’s or friends’ engineering industry network (evidence of high social capital) to secure their first Internship. Survey respondents and interviewees described internship application processes as time consuming and stressful when combined with study commitments. Most accessed familial financial and social support to take up internships. All perceived their earliest internship(s) helped expand their industry network, enhanced their employability through immersion in the engineering workplace(s), and afforded them experiences they drew on in subsequent situational-analysis interviews. The benefits of exposure to professional practice included: opportunity to extend university-gained theoretical knowledge; appreciation of industry and sector drivers; identification of knowledge gaps; and enhanced professional skills. CONCLUSIONS Early findings suggest support for prior research indicating that internships have potential to be transformational experiences when those experiences are positive. An initial internship may not be easily accessible for students without high social capital. An unpaid internship may not be an option for students without financial support mechanisms including accrued savings, or familial, government or scholarship assistance. Recommendations for stakeholders are currently being developed.