Developing an engineering education research community of practice through a structured workshop curriculum

This paper reports initial assessment and research results from the NSF-funded Rigorous Research in Engineering Education (RREE) workshops. The workshops are funded for three years (from 2004 to 2006), and the workshop experience includes both a 5-day summer workshop and a year-long experience that allows participants to conduct a small education research project guided by a more experienced mentor. This paper focuses on the results of the 2004 and 2005 RREE workshops and changes made to the 2005 workshop to promote a community of practice. Implications are also drawn for those interested in building engineering education research capacity. Three important changes were made to the workshop format to further promote formation of a community of practice in 2005. Allowing participants to group themselves into "intellectual neighborhoods" by self-selecting other participants with similar or complementary interests. Using participant-created posters both as performance outcomes, and as a venue for sharing ideas and obtaining feedback from fellow participants and workshop facilitators. (This included formal presentations at the end of the workshop.) Structuring a research methods session around facilitator-defined participant groups with similar research interests. Initial results indicate that activities in the original workshop structure as well as the updates helped participants to focus on engineering education research questions of personal interest while building a community that extends beyond the week-long workshop.