Overall Mission/Objective

The Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE) addresses the critical national need to advance scholarship in engineering teaching and learning, increase the use of effective pedagogies in engineering classrooms, and strengthen the research and leadership skills of the engineering faculty and graduate student community. The specific goals of the Center are to

• understand and enhance the engineering student learning experience 
• integrate the needs of diverse faculty and diverse students into engineering education
• strengthen the engineering education research base
• expand the community of leaders in engineering education
• promote effective teaching for current and future faculty

The core team consists of five partner universities: Colorado School of Mines, Howard University , Stanford University , and University of Minnesota , and University of Washington (lead). CAEE affiliates include national organizations, other academic institutions and industry partners. CAEE funding is provided by the National Science Foundation grant ESI-0227558 from January 2003 through December 2007.

Outcomes

People : CAEE activities to build human resources in engineering education focus on advancing the scholarship of engineering education and on enhancing the engineering teaching skills of present and future faculty.

Ideas: CAEE research activities will provide a strong base for understanding the engineering student learning experience of diverse groups. The Academic Pathways Study (APS) is studying engineering students at four of the partner schools and will be extended to a wider range of campuses in the last two years of the grant. Descriptions of student experiences ranging from entry level freshman who are contemplating engineering as a major to those in transition to a first engineering job will result. In addition to the APS, three smaller scale targeted studies are examining 1) the importance of difficult concepts in engineering learning, 2) the influence of technological fluencies in becoming an engineer and 3) the role of mathematics in engineering education and practice.

Tools: CAEE will generate tools and resources for use in enhancing engineering education and the scholarship of engineering teaching. The research methodologies, instruments and results of the Academic Pathways Study will provide a basis for understanding the engineering student learning experience, improving engineering teaching, and generating further research activity. An Engineering Teaching Portfolio Program for graduate students will serve as a model for thinking about teaching decision making in the early stages of the engineering teaching experience. Three year-long Engineering Education Institutes will establish methodologies and processes for further collaborations of engineering educators to advance the scholarship of engineering teaching.