Taxonomies of Engineering Competencies and Quality Assurance in Engineering Education

Awareness of Self and the Engineering Field: Student Motivation, Assessment of ‘Fit’ and Preparedness for Engineering Education

“…There is a suggested relationship between: understanding the nature of the engineering field, understanding the requirements to succeed in engineering, and setting educational goals in order to develop the required competencies and attributes (Braskamp, 2009;Woollacott, 2009). This may apply not only to engineering programs, but also to learners who set their own educational goals.…”

“…Despite the increased interest in students pursuing the engineering field and increased academic interest in engineering education research, there remains a particular need to address underpreparedness, attrition and varied success of learners in their academic endeavors and career plans (Woollacott, 2009). In terms of students' achievement and persistence to succeed in engineering, literature suggests that the motivational constructs (including expectations and value-based beliefs) and the behavioural constructs (including learning strategies) both play an important role (Jones, Paretti, Hein & Knott, 2010; Biggs, 1999;Biggs, Kember & Leung, 2001).…”

“…We attempt to connect the two knowledge categories (of self and of the engineering field) to the concept of preparedness (Woollacott, 2009). We define preparedness as the self-assessed and actual readiness contributing to the ability to succeed in engineering.…”

Subject-level quality assurance in computing: Experiences from three national perspectives

“…We start by discussing some of the key ideas that underlie the quality assurance processes found in the European context. Following Woollacott [5] we discuss the concept of quality in the context of the kinds of stakeholders found in higher education and look at the notion of competency and the way that it gives rise to process-centred and outcome-centred approaches to quality assurance. We take as our academic context, Computing departments of universities located in three European countries -Iceland, Sweden and the United Kingdom (Scotland).…”

“…As remarked by Woollacott [5], quality is a complex trait that requires a sophisticated understanding, not just of how well a particular product or service fits its proposed context, but also how those who use that service react to it. When defining quality, and implicitly when discussing issues of quality assurance, it is important therefore to identify the expectations of stakeholders with respect to what is being judged, as a vital component in examining performance.…”