Making learning whole: Toward the development of an instrument operationalizing perkins' model

Abstract

The push for stronger links between engineering education research and practice requires that taking a more scholarly approach to teaching became the norm instead of the exception across all engineering education. This paper seeks to make the case that there is a lack of tools available for achieving some of the goals of the field, such as the one aforementioned, and presents findings from a set of research activities designed to help address this need. More specifically, this work in progress paper describes the early stages of a study that uses Making Learning Whole instructional design framework and Messick's instrument development theory to develop a validated rubric that can be used to design and evaluate the effectiveness of engineering education courses in formal and informal contexts. This paper describes the early stages of an engineering education research endeavor that will be an important contribution to the field. It is situated in an appropriate theoretical and methodological framework. This paper affirms that Making Learning Whole is an instructional framework that is relevant and applicable to engineering education; holds tremendous promise for designing and evaluating a variety of engineering education experiences; and can be operationalized into a pedagogical resource that can help bridge the gap between research and practice in engineering education.