Learning to Learn Engineering - A Learning Sciences Approach to Engineering Curriculum Design and Implementation.

This is an Innovative Practice Full Paper. Engineering education research has often tended to focus on subject matter and effective pedagogy. Lacking is research illuminating the learning process itself and development of learning skills in engineering students. This paper presents a framework for engineering learner development that leverages processes allowing learners to learn more effectively, i.e., learning to learn engineering. Components include: engineering knowledge forms and levels; relationships between engineering knowledge and performance; risk factors; learner characteristics that produce working expertise; cultural shifts supporting learner development, and a model for the engineering learning process. Two case studies show how these components guide curricular implementation of learning to learn engineering.