Vancouver, BC
June 26, 2011
June 26, 2011
June 29, 2011
2153-5965
Civil Engineering Education and Workforce Development Challenges
Civil Engineering
16
22.1260.1 - 22.1260.16
10.18260/1-2--18389
https://peer.asee.org/18389
549
Dr. Barry is an Assistant Professor and course director in the Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He predominately teaches in the area of engineering mechanics. His current areas of research include professional ethics, economic factors influencing engineering education, identity development, and non-verbal communication. Dr. Barry is a licensed professional engineer with multiple years of consulting experience.
Major Kathryn Purchase is currently an Instructor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. She has served in the United States Army for the last eight years as an officer and Army Engineer. She is a graduate of West Point (B.S. in Civil Engineering), Missouri Science & Technology (M.S. in Engineering Management) and the University of Vermont (M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering).
Major Marc Sanborn is an Instructor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He has served in the United States Army for the last nine years as an officer and Army Engineer. He is a graduate of West Point (B.S. in Civil Engineering), Missouri Science & Technology (M.S. in Engineering Management) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (M.S. in Civil Engineering). Major Sanborn is a licensed professional engineer.
Rigorous Educational Research in Civil Engineering: What Does it Look Like and How are We Doing?A minimum level of scholarship is expected in the performance of research in the engineeringdisciplines. An individual undertaking serious research wouldn’t think of attempting to publish atechnical manuscript in a journal or present findings at a conference without meeting the rigorousexpectations as established by the academic community. Then why is it that the commonrigorous standards are overlooked when conducting educational research? Educational research,when performed properly, is a form of technical research. Therefore, educational research canand should be conducted in a rigorous manner.For at least the past three years, the Board of Directors of the Civil Engineering Division of theAmerican Society for Engineering Education has discussed the desire to “raise the bar” on ourown level of rigor. Specifically, the Board of Directors has expressed an interest in seeing animprovement in the scholarship contained within the papers accepted by the Division to theannual conference.This paper will define the expected requirements associated with high quality rigorous researchas accepted by the academic and/or professional communities. In addition, this paper willpresent a meta-analysis of all of the papers accepted to the annual conference by the CivilEngineering Division during the past five years (2004-2009). This meta-analysis will generateboth a snap-shot of the level of rigor represented in the Division papers for the defined timeperiod and it will identify any trends over that time period. The meta-analysis will present onlyaggregate results and will not identify individual contributions to the Division. The members ofthe Division will learn how to “raise the bar” on their own level of rigorous educational research.
Barry, B. E., & Purchase, K., & Sanborn, M. J. (2011, June), Rigorous Educational Research in Civil Engineering Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--18389
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