Graduate Students' Evolving Ideas on Engineering Education and Engineering Educators

Abstract

Graduate students at Purdue University enrolled in two introductory engineering education graduate courses were interviewed at the beginning, middle, and end of the Fall 2005 semester. The majority of the students were members of the first cohort of an engineering education graduate program. During the course of three interviews, graduate students discussed their education, teaching and industry experience, future professional goals, working definitions of engineering education, and the engineering education courses. This qualitative study addresses the participants' responses to three of the interview questions: 1) How do you define engineering education?; 2) What is the role of an engineering educator?; 3) What are some challenges facing engineering educators? This paper analyzes the data collected from the graduate students and compares general responses across the early, mid-semester, and end-of-semester interviews