A reflexive course for Masters students to understand and plan their own continuing professional development

Mann, Llewellyn and Radcliffe, David (2005). A reflexive course for Masters students to understand and plan their own continuing professional development. In: , Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. 2005 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., (1-16). 12-15 June 2005.


Author Mann, Llewellyn
Radcliffe, David
Title of paper A reflexive course for Masters students to understand and plan their own continuing professional development
Conference Paper Type Fully Published Paper
Conference name 2005 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition    (ERA 2010 Rank B)
Conference location Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
Conference dates 12-15 June 2005
Proceedings title Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition
Place published Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
Publisher American Society for Engineering Education
Publication date 2005
Volume number 1
Start page 1
End page 16
Total pages 16
Collection year 2005
Language eng
Abstract/Summary Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is seen as a vital part of a professional engineer’s career, by professional engineering institutions as well as individual engineers. Factors such as ever-changing workforce requirements and rapid technological change have resulted in engineers no longer being able to rely just on the skills they learnt at university or can pick up on the job; they must undergo a structured professional development with clear objectives to develop further professional knowledge, values and skills. This paper presents a course developed for students undertaking a Master of Engineering or Master of Project Management at the University of Queensland. This course was specifically designed to help students plan their continuing professional development, while developing professional skills such as communication, ethical reasoning, critical judgement and the need for sustainable development. The course utilised a work integrated learning pedagogy applied within a formal learning environment, and followed the competency based chartered membership program of Engineers Australia, the peak professional body of engineers in Australia. The course was developed and analysed using an action learning approach. The main research question was “Can extra teaching and learning activities be developed that will simulate workplace learning?” The students continually assessed and reflected upon their current competencies, skills and abilities, and planed for the future attainment of specific competencies which they identified as important to their future careers. Various evaluation methods, including surveys before and after the course, were used to evaluate the action learning intervention. It was found that the assessment developed for the course was one of the most important factors, not only in driving student learning, as is widely accepted, but also in changing the students’ understandings and acceptance of the need for continuous professional development. The students also felt that the knowledge, values and skills they developed would be beneficial for their future careers, as they were developed within the context of their own professional development, rather than to just get through the course. © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education
Subjects E1
290501 Mechanical Engineering
740301 Higher education
Q-Index Code E1
Q-Index Status Provisional Code
Institutional Status UQ
Additional Notes Paper published online in pdf format. Conference theme: The Changing Landscape of Engineering and Technology Education in a Global World

 
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Created: Thu, 23 Aug 2007, 20:56:31 EST