Workshop — Fundamentals of educational research

This session is intended for engineering faculty and graduate students who are new to engineering education research. This workshop is based on the 2006 Frontiers in Education Special Session: “What IS Rigorous Research in Engineering Education?” winner of the Helen Plants award for best interactive session at FIE. A key objective of this workshop is to allow participants to compare and contrast educational research principles with the principles they are familiar with in their technical research area. Participants will work in small groups to co-construct and then compare criteria for quality technical and educational research in engineering. These criteria will be compared to those proposed in the NRC publication Scientific Research in Education. This activity allows participants to create their own list of criteria to judge “quality” educational research. This information can later be applied by participants to better understand engineering education research articles or proposals they read or are asked to review. This workshop is sponsored by the National Science foundation through Expanding and sustaining research capacity in engineering and technology education: Building on successful programs for faculty and graduate students (DUE - 0817461).