Peer Learning and Leadership in Engineering Design and Professional Practice

Abstract

This work presents an assessment of the development of leadership skills in fourth-year engineering students, who are project leads of teams that comprise of third-year engineering students in a yearlong Engineering Design and Professional Practice course. It is proposed that the success of peer learning is directly related to the growth and change in the project leads, the progress of the followers, and the strength of the leader-follower engagement. As such, this work will compare classroom observations with Leader-MemberExchange (LMX) theory and the concepts of servant leadership and authentic leadership in the context of an engineering workplace. This work will also discuss both the value of the inputs and the measure of the outcomes in this peer mentorship scenario, i.e. starting with the importance of the individual in peer mentorship, through reflection, goal-setting, and self-awareness, to the importance and practice of designated project lead management meetings, to the significance of knowledge transfer in the learning process. The challenges of peer learning at the undergraduate level will also be discussed. In presenting this work, the authors would like to promote knowledge sharing of how peer mentorship and the development of leadership skills have been implemented and assessed effectively in Engineering at other universities. Keywords: peer learning and mentorship, project-based teamwork, authentic and servant leadership, leaderfollower exchange.