ERIC Number: EJ1064915
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0304-3797
EISSN: N/A
Engineers' Professional Learning: A Practice-Theory Perspective
Reich, Ann; Rooney, Donna; Gardner, Anne; Willey, Keith; Boud, David; Fitzgerald, Terry
European Journal of Engineering Education, v40 n4 p366-379 2015
With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory perspective on engineers' professional learning is fruitful. It shifts the focus from the attributes of the individual learner (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to the attributes of the practice (interactions, materiality, opportunities and challenges). Learning is thus more than the technical "acquisition" and "transfer" of knowledge, but a complex bundle of activities, that is, social, material, embodied and emerging. The paper is illustrated with examples from a research study of the learning of experienced engineers in the construction industry to demonstrate common practices--site walks and design review meetings--in which learning takes place.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Engineering, Engineering Education, Technical Occupations, Theory Practice Relationship, Workplace Learning, Transfer of Training, Construction Industry
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A