Decision-Making: What Does It Have to Do with My Teaching? Research Brief

Publication Date

7-1-2007

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Engineering education can be thought of as a complex design activity where educators create a range of teaching artifacts including course curricula, classroom policies, lecture notes, exams, and timelines for student group projects. In order to design such artifacts, engineering faculty must make a series of teaching decisions, each of which can impact their students' learning and engagement with course activities. Given the importance of decision-making in engineering education, the authors hope that by beginning to characterize engineering educator decisions, educators will gain a greater awareness of their decision-making by recognizing, characterizing, and anticipating decision points. Thus, the initial research questions driving this study were: (1) What aspects of engineering educators' decision-making processes are prominent during their participation in the instructional development process?; and (2) How can engineering educators make more effective decisions? This exploratory study looks at engineering faculty decisions as expressed during the instructional development process.

Publication Title

Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education

Publisher Policy

open access

Open Access Status

OA Journal

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