Course info
EDPS0220 - Engineering and Education: Practice, Innovation and Leadership 2019/20
Welcome to Engineering and Education: Practice, Innovation and Leadership,
one of the two core modules of the UCL MSc in Engineering Education run
jointly by the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences and the Institute of
Education. The role and form of education within engineering has
increasingly become both more important and more problematic, in relation
to (a) the recruitment and formation of engineers as part of initial
education and (b) the learning that necessarily takes place as part of
engineering work and practice. Three challenges stand out: firstly we need
to significantly increase the number of young people, and particularly
girls and young women, who choose science and engineering for their career
path; secondly, in a world of rapid technological and social change, we
need to design and embed new pathways within initial education so that
would-be engineers are prepared appropriately; and thirdly, given that
engineering work contexts increasingly need to be both collaborative and
innovative, we need to understand better the links between workplace
learning and innovation, the nature and style of appropriate leadership,
and the organisation and structure of the work processes and cultures
needed to optimise these links. This module aims to provide students with
theoretical tools and practical perspectives to develop practical ideas on
the interrelationship between the organisational environment, professional
learning and expertise, and innovation in a range of engineering contexts.
It explores the implications of understanding the engineering workplace as
a key site for both learning and innovation, of collaborative practice
across disciplinary and organisational boundaries as a key source of
innovation, and of leadership in developing and maintaining the kinds of
working practices and cultures that support learning and innovation. The
module also looks at the role of policy in creating enabling frameworks
within which engineers can work productively and innovatively. The
individual sessions are not in general structurally linked, but the key
themes of the module are intended to be refracted in each of them, so that
each session provides a different perspective on the key issues explored by
the module as a whole.
Course contacts
Tutor
MD
LR