Is the Engineering Education community becoming more interdisciplinary?

Abstract

This study uses bibliometric methods for disciplinary diversity, co-authorship, and research trends, to investigate the interdisciplinary changes in Engineering Education Research during 1980-2010. For this, the authors utilized the subject categories (SC) provided by the Thomson Scientific's Institute for Scientific Information ISI; specifically, the prominent authors working in EER were revealed based on their productivity (e.g. publication counts and collaboration patterns).The study revealed that there is a variety of disciplines participated in EER; as a result there is the trend towards multiple authorships and increasing attempts for the transition from individual curriculum innovation research towards pure basic and translational research that require collaboration across disciplines. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.