A social realist study of employability development in engineering education
- Authors: Nudelman, Gabrielle Reeve
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Critical realism , Electrical engineering -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Employability , Career education -- South Africa -- Cape Town , School-to-work transition -- South Africa -- Cape Town
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62884 , vital:28307
- Description: This qualitative case study of a course pairing offered to final-year electrical engineering students at the University of Cape Town in 2015 was undertaken in order to better understand the ways in which participation in undergraduate courses can prepare engineering students for the workplace. The course pairing consisted of New Venture Planning and Professional Communication Studies. While the former aimed to expose students to the knowledge relating to starting a new business, the latter focused on teaching students how to create written and oral texts to support such an endeavour. Using Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism as a theoretical underlabourer, the study develops understandings regarding the generative mechanisms at work during the two courses. In support of this, the study posits an understanding of employability that moves beyond the acquisition of discrete workplace skills. Rather, employability is conceptualised as discursive transformation, with students being deemed “work-ready” when they develop discursive identities as engineers. Data generation took place by means of focus group and individual interviews, ethnographic observation and documentary research. Margaret Archer’s social realist tools – in particular, analytical dualism and the morphogenetic framework were used to trace the students’ transformations over the course pairing. It was argued that those students who developed discursive identities of engineers were those who, in Archer’s terms, emerged as social actors at the end of the course pairing. Two characteristics of the courses were found to enable this transformation: those parts that promoted deepened understanding of what the role of “engineer” entailed and the parts that provided spaces for students to develop their own personal identities. The findings of the study indicated that discursive identities as engineers were more likely to be developed through the group work and spaces for reflection engendered by the courses than as a result of the formal curriculum. The implications of the research are that, while a focus on employability in engineering education is valid and productive, this needs to be supported by opportunities for authentic learning experiences which afford students the opportunity to engage in learning that promotes real-life application of knowledge. , Thesis (PhD)--Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education, 2018
- Full Text:
- Authors: Nudelman, Gabrielle Reeve
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Critical realism , Electrical engineering -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa -- Cape Town , Employability , Career education -- South Africa -- Cape Town , School-to-work transition -- South Africa -- Cape Town
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62884 , vital:28307
- Description: This qualitative case study of a course pairing offered to final-year electrical engineering students at the University of Cape Town in 2015 was undertaken in order to better understand the ways in which participation in undergraduate courses can prepare engineering students for the workplace. The course pairing consisted of New Venture Planning and Professional Communication Studies. While the former aimed to expose students to the knowledge relating to starting a new business, the latter focused on teaching students how to create written and oral texts to support such an endeavour. Using Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism as a theoretical underlabourer, the study develops understandings regarding the generative mechanisms at work during the two courses. In support of this, the study posits an understanding of employability that moves beyond the acquisition of discrete workplace skills. Rather, employability is conceptualised as discursive transformation, with students being deemed “work-ready” when they develop discursive identities as engineers. Data generation took place by means of focus group and individual interviews, ethnographic observation and documentary research. Margaret Archer’s social realist tools – in particular, analytical dualism and the morphogenetic framework were used to trace the students’ transformations over the course pairing. It was argued that those students who developed discursive identities of engineers were those who, in Archer’s terms, emerged as social actors at the end of the course pairing. Two characteristics of the courses were found to enable this transformation: those parts that promoted deepened understanding of what the role of “engineer” entailed and the parts that provided spaces for students to develop their own personal identities. The findings of the study indicated that discursive identities as engineers were more likely to be developed through the group work and spaces for reflection engendered by the courses than as a result of the formal curriculum. The implications of the research are that, while a focus on employability in engineering education is valid and productive, this needs to be supported by opportunities for authentic learning experiences which afford students the opportunity to engage in learning that promotes real-life application of knowledge. , Thesis (PhD)--Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education, 2018
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Rhodes University Research Report 2009
- Authors: Rhodes University
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:564 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011966
- Description: [From Introduction] Rhodes University maintained and improved its track record of research performance in 2009, a very pleasing trend given that it came directly after a large increase of accredited publication outputs in 2008 of 20.3%, and a flattening of the growth curve was expected. The increase in accredited publication units for 2009 of 6.4% (from 330.02 units to 350.99 units) is closer to the growth rate for the sector as a whole. This continued increase in research publications was achieved against the backdrop of substantial financial constraints and changes in the funding programmes of the National Research Foundation, a primary source of funding for researchers at Rhodes, which produced significant discontinuities in funding for several established researchers. Our journal output, (which accounts for 86% of our total accredited publishing output for higher education subsidy purposes) grew by 5.1% from 2008 to 2009 (from 287.82 units to 302.64 units). The previous year’s growth was 11.3% in this category. Coupled with Rhodes’s high volume of accredited journal outputs in relation to its size, a very pleasing quality measure was that 81.6% of Journal outputs (amongst the highest proportions in the sector) appeared in international accredited journals. Our output from accredited conference proceedings, (which in 2009 amounted to 7% of our total accredited publishing output) shrunk by 27.5% (from 33.22 units down to 24.07 units) from 2008 to 2009 – but from a small base where more year-on-year variance can be expected. This category had grown by 202% in the preceding year, so the 2009 reduction cannot be taken to represent a trend. The book outputs (which in 2009 amounted to 7% of our total accredited publishing output) increased by 170% – again from a very small base (from 8.89 units up to 24.28 units), where year-on-year variance is expected. This category had grown by 91% in the previous year, but had seen a negative growth of 83% in the year before that. The 2009 growth in this category is a combination of increased submissions, and an improved acceptance rate. The staff responsible for this process in the Research Office, and the researchers who made the submissions, are to be warmly congratulated. I add my warm thanks and congratulations to all of our researchers, funders, collaborators and partners who contributed to the excellent research results of 2009.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Rhodes University
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:564 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011966
- Description: [From Introduction] Rhodes University maintained and improved its track record of research performance in 2009, a very pleasing trend given that it came directly after a large increase of accredited publication outputs in 2008 of 20.3%, and a flattening of the growth curve was expected. The increase in accredited publication units for 2009 of 6.4% (from 330.02 units to 350.99 units) is closer to the growth rate for the sector as a whole. This continued increase in research publications was achieved against the backdrop of substantial financial constraints and changes in the funding programmes of the National Research Foundation, a primary source of funding for researchers at Rhodes, which produced significant discontinuities in funding for several established researchers. Our journal output, (which accounts for 86% of our total accredited publishing output for higher education subsidy purposes) grew by 5.1% from 2008 to 2009 (from 287.82 units to 302.64 units). The previous year’s growth was 11.3% in this category. Coupled with Rhodes’s high volume of accredited journal outputs in relation to its size, a very pleasing quality measure was that 81.6% of Journal outputs (amongst the highest proportions in the sector) appeared in international accredited journals. Our output from accredited conference proceedings, (which in 2009 amounted to 7% of our total accredited publishing output) shrunk by 27.5% (from 33.22 units down to 24.07 units) from 2008 to 2009 – but from a small base where more year-on-year variance can be expected. This category had grown by 202% in the preceding year, so the 2009 reduction cannot be taken to represent a trend. The book outputs (which in 2009 amounted to 7% of our total accredited publishing output) increased by 170% – again from a very small base (from 8.89 units up to 24.28 units), where year-on-year variance is expected. This category had grown by 91% in the previous year, but had seen a negative growth of 83% in the year before that. The 2009 growth in this category is a combination of increased submissions, and an improved acceptance rate. The staff responsible for this process in the Research Office, and the researchers who made the submissions, are to be warmly congratulated. I add my warm thanks and congratulations to all of our researchers, funders, collaborators and partners who contributed to the excellent research results of 2009.
- Full Text:
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