Many businesses place a high priority on harnessing local expertise, in part due to concerns abou... more Many businesses place a high priority on harnessing local expertise, in part due to concerns about the loss of expertise due to retirement. Expertise comes in many forms from specialized technical knowledge to more elusive forms of knowledge such as capabilities associated with driving breakthrough innovations. This research project is a university-business collaboration to support growing breakthrough talent and succession planning of retiring experts in Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Kimberly-Clark), a Fortune 500 Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) multinational company. We hypothesize that big picture thinking (BPT) is part of an ability to drive a breakthrough mindset for realizing innovations that can redefine the consumer experience, reimagine commercialization pathways, and revolutionize business success and growth. We further hypothesize that BPT can be studied, characterized , and developed as a form of expertise: by articulating BPT competencies we can enable their development at Kimberly-Clark. This project involved three research phases integrating qualitative and quantitative methods to identify: characteristics of BPT to substantiate track records and guide succession training, BPT indicators to identify emerging and expert BPTs, and contextual features that could nurture, promote, and enable BPT. Research outcomes summarize five BPT themes, prevalence and interrelationships across themes, and quantitative analyses of BPT clusters to identify indicators that differentiate clusters. BPT themes include: Making connections to create new possibilities, Formulating problems for holistic beneficial impact, Organizational literacy to enable change, Painting the picture to help others see the potential for impact, and Open and flexible learner. In this paper we describe this project, present research outcomes, and discuss theoretical and practical implications for making visible an " elusive " form of expertise – big picture thinking. Theoretical implications emphasize how study outcomes align with existing literature and reveal two aspects of BPT not well understood (e.g., organizational literacy and painting the picture), as well as insights into methodol-ogies for harnessing an elusive form of breakthrough expertise. Practical implications emphasize the importance of language in operationalizing a form of expertise central to business success, and translating study outcomes into recommendations for enabling early, middle and late-career BPT talent development.
The context for this practitioner paper is a novel university-business collaboration between Kimb... more The context for this practitioner paper is a novel university-business collaboration between Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Kimberly-Clark), a Fortune 500 Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) multinational company, and researchers from Purdue University's School of Engineering Education. Kimberly-Clark is concerned about the loss of " breakthrough thinking " expertise and its role in realizing innovations that can redefine the Kimberly-Clark consumer experience, reimagine commercialization pathways, and revolutionize Kimberly-Clark business success and growth. This collaboration focuses on conducting research into one dimension of breakthrough thinking – big picture thinking (BPT). This is an elusive and tacit form of expertise that lacks an empirically grounded language necessary for guiding BPT hiring, talent development and succession planning. In this paper, we examine this collaboration to (1) characterize critical elements from project initiation to execution to operationalization, (2) summarize collaboration impacts, and (3) examine features of this collaboration through multiple lenses to generate implications for future university-business collaborations (big picture thinking, collaborative inquiry, participatory co-design, and industry action research). Collectively, these approaches provide ways for understanding the importance of broad stakeholder engagement from initial problem definition to solution development and evaluation, being responsive to emergent stakeholder perspectives, collaboratively inquiring into questions of mutual interest as an iterative and reflexive process, and an emphasis on learning, use and the potential for guiding transformational action. By examining our own process we hope to advance local knowledge at Kimberly-Clark as well as shareable knowledge that may guide other university-business collaborations that have similar goals. We conclude with how this collaboration has opened up new pathways for collaboration – changing perspectives on the kinds of high value collaborations that could be pursued.
The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent ... more The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent in an undergraduate research experience (URE). Data for the study come from a survey administered at three points over a 1-yr period: before participation in the program, at the end of a Summer segment of research, and at the end of the year. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine the effect of time on perceived gains in student research skills, research confidence, and understanding of research processes. The results suggest that the students experienced different gains/benefits at developmentally different stages of their UREs. Participants reported gains in fewer areas at the end of the Summer segment compared with the end of the yearlong experience, thus supporting the notion that longer UREs offer students more benefit. Villarejo M (2010). Importance of undergraduate research for minority persistence and achievement in biology. J Higher Educ 81, 82-115.
2007 37th annual frontiers in education conference - global engineering: knowledge without borders, opportunities without passports, 2007
This paper will introduce a "Scholarship of Impact" framework for engineering education research.... more This paper will introduce a "Scholarship of Impact" framework for engineering education research. The "Scholarship of Impact" framework promotes the idea that engineering education research projects should consider impact goals early on in the design process (by focusing on key networks, collaborations, and local needs) to build scholarship around what it means to use research to inform education practice. The "Scholarship of Impact" framework will expand on the concepts of impact (evidence of change) and impact potential (capacity to cause change). Learnings from the NSF-sponsored Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education Institute for Scholarship of Engineering Education and an example "Impact Study" will be discussed.
This paper presents three lenses for interpreting design thinking: a framework on learning to bec... more This paper presents three lenses for interpreting design thinking: a framework on learning to become professionals, and two interpretations of this framework that speak broadly to aspects of 'design thinking'. The first lens draws on a framework for 'an embodied understanding of professional practice' and provides a way to describe how professionals form and organize their knowledge and skills into a particular 'professional-way-of-being'. The second and third lenses provide examples of using this framework to interpret existing results from phenomenographic studies on ways of experiencing design and ways of experiencing cross-disciplinary practice. We conclude with a discussion of how these three lenses contribute to a working synthesis of design thinking and learning.
The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent ... more The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent in an undergraduate research experience (URE). Data for the study come from a survey administered at three points over a 1-yr period: before participation in the program, at the end of a Summer segment of research, and at the end of the year. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine the effect of time on perceived gains in student research skills, research confidence, and understanding of research processes. The results suggest that the students experienced different gains/benefits at developmentally different stages of their UREs. Participants reported gains in fewer areas at the end of the Summer segment compared with the end of the yearlong experience, thus supporting the notion that longer UREs offer students more benefit. Villarejo M (2010). Importance of undergraduate research for minority persistence and achievement in biology. J Higher Educ 81, 82-115.
2007 37th Annual Frontiers In Education Conference - Global Engineering: Knowledge Without Borders, Opportunities Without Passports, 2007
In today's context, we are all challenged to consider issues of diversity and global engineering ... more In today's context, we are all challenged to consider issues of diversity and global engineering in the context of engineering education. However, little explicit guidance has been given on how to conceptualize diversity and global engineering in meaningful ways, and how to develop research questions that allow us to rigorously investigate the issues at hand. This session will provide an interactive forum for exploring those questions, finding answers collaboratively, and moving one's own work forward. To anchor the forum, we will draw on the experiences of engineering faculty and graduate students who participated in a year-long engineering education research program, the Institute for Scholarship on Engineering Education (ISEE). The session will build on a similar session offered at the 2005 FIE conference to expand the growing engineering education research community, extend the knowledge-generating work begun in the 2005 session, and add two new components: 1) a focus on the process of developing and refining a research question, and 2) an emphasis on studying diversity and global engineering issues.
2007 37th annual frontiers in education conference - global engineering: knowledge without borders, opportunities without passports, 2007
This paper will introduce a "Scholarship of Impact" framework for engineering education research.... more This paper will introduce a "Scholarship of Impact" framework for engineering education research. The "Scholarship of Impact" framework promotes the idea that engineering education research projects should consider impact goals early on in the design process (by focusing on key networks, collaborations, and local needs) to build scholarship around what it means to use research to inform education practice. The "Scholarship of Impact" framework will expand on the concepts of impact (evidence of change) and impact potential (capacity to cause change). Learnings from the NSF-sponsored Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education Institute for Scholarship of Engineering Education and an example "Impact Study" will be discussed.
over the four years of their engineering education, male students have higher confidence than wom... more over the four years of their engineering education, male students have higher confidence than women in their math and science abilities and their ability to solve open-ended problems Chachra et al. Exploring Gender and Self-confidence in Engineering Students: A Multi-method Approach.
At the time the decision was made to discontinue funding to the NSF Engineering Education Coaliti... more At the time the decision was made to discontinue funding to the NSF Engineering Education Coalitions, data in support of the impact of the coalitions were unavailable. Since then, whether an institution was a member of a coalition has been an important variable in many engineering education studies. In this panel session and paper, we present the results of three such studies and invite the audience to assess the strength of the evidence. Guided audience discussion will focus on whether the results can be used to evaluate the coalitions intervention, related research directions, and implications for future funding.
— This paper has three primary,purposes: 1) to present a classroom assessment,method,that has not... more — This paper has three primary,purposes: 1) to present a classroom assessment,method,that has not been widely discussed by engineering educators, 2) to illustrate how this method serves as sustainable assessment, and 3) to provide a specific classroom,example,of the method. The mid-term class interview involves collecting and responding to student feedback during the middle of the academic,term. The goal of
2011 Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2011
Design is a central aspect of engineering and engineering education, but is challenging to teach ... more Design is a central aspect of engineering and engineering education, but is challenging to teach and even more challenging to assess. In this special session participants co-construct an understanding of design and what aspects of design should be (and can be) assessed. Additionally, the special session will review the instrument development process (including the process of validating instruments) and will provide examples of existing instruments for assessing learners' understanding of design. These instruments measure a variety of topics and concepts related to design, have been designed for many different audiences and have been developed for different purposes. This session will equip educators with tools that are useful for assessing and promoting students' understanding of design. Additionally, this session may benefit educators and researchers interested in adopting or adapting design assessments for use with K-12 populations.
Abstract-Engineering education is an emerging discipline, and the number of people choosing this ... more Abstract-Engineering education is an emerging discipline, and the number of people choosing this career path is increasing. What pathways might we navigate on our way to becoming an engineering education researcher? How can we investigate these pathways ...
Engaging future engineers is a central topic in everyday conversations on engineering education. ... more Engaging future engineers is a central topic in everyday conversations on engineering education. Considerable investments have been made to make engineering more engaging, recruit and retain aspiring engineers, and to design an education to prepare future engineers. However, the impact of these efforts has been less than intended. It is imperative that the community reflects on progress and sets a more effective path for the future.
Many businesses place a high priority on harnessing local expertise, in part due to concerns abou... more Many businesses place a high priority on harnessing local expertise, in part due to concerns about the loss of expertise due to retirement. Expertise comes in many forms from specialized technical knowledge to more elusive forms of knowledge such as capabilities associated with driving breakthrough innovations. This research project is a university-business collaboration to support growing breakthrough talent and succession planning of retiring experts in Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Kimberly-Clark), a Fortune 500 Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) multinational company. We hypothesize that big picture thinking (BPT) is part of an ability to drive a breakthrough mindset for realizing innovations that can redefine the consumer experience, reimagine commercialization pathways, and revolutionize business success and growth. We further hypothesize that BPT can be studied, characterized , and developed as a form of expertise: by articulating BPT competencies we can enable their development at Kimberly-Clark. This project involved three research phases integrating qualitative and quantitative methods to identify: characteristics of BPT to substantiate track records and guide succession training, BPT indicators to identify emerging and expert BPTs, and contextual features that could nurture, promote, and enable BPT. Research outcomes summarize five BPT themes, prevalence and interrelationships across themes, and quantitative analyses of BPT clusters to identify indicators that differentiate clusters. BPT themes include: Making connections to create new possibilities, Formulating problems for holistic beneficial impact, Organizational literacy to enable change, Painting the picture to help others see the potential for impact, and Open and flexible learner. In this paper we describe this project, present research outcomes, and discuss theoretical and practical implications for making visible an " elusive " form of expertise – big picture thinking. Theoretical implications emphasize how study outcomes align with existing literature and reveal two aspects of BPT not well understood (e.g., organizational literacy and painting the picture), as well as insights into methodol-ogies for harnessing an elusive form of breakthrough expertise. Practical implications emphasize the importance of language in operationalizing a form of expertise central to business success, and translating study outcomes into recommendations for enabling early, middle and late-career BPT talent development.
The context for this practitioner paper is a novel university-business collaboration between Kimb... more The context for this practitioner paper is a novel university-business collaboration between Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Kimberly-Clark), a Fortune 500 Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) multinational company, and researchers from Purdue University's School of Engineering Education. Kimberly-Clark is concerned about the loss of " breakthrough thinking " expertise and its role in realizing innovations that can redefine the Kimberly-Clark consumer experience, reimagine commercialization pathways, and revolutionize Kimberly-Clark business success and growth. This collaboration focuses on conducting research into one dimension of breakthrough thinking – big picture thinking (BPT). This is an elusive and tacit form of expertise that lacks an empirically grounded language necessary for guiding BPT hiring, talent development and succession planning. In this paper, we examine this collaboration to (1) characterize critical elements from project initiation to execution to operationalization, (2) summarize collaboration impacts, and (3) examine features of this collaboration through multiple lenses to generate implications for future university-business collaborations (big picture thinking, collaborative inquiry, participatory co-design, and industry action research). Collectively, these approaches provide ways for understanding the importance of broad stakeholder engagement from initial problem definition to solution development and evaluation, being responsive to emergent stakeholder perspectives, collaboratively inquiring into questions of mutual interest as an iterative and reflexive process, and an emphasis on learning, use and the potential for guiding transformational action. By examining our own process we hope to advance local knowledge at Kimberly-Clark as well as shareable knowledge that may guide other university-business collaborations that have similar goals. We conclude with how this collaboration has opened up new pathways for collaboration – changing perspectives on the kinds of high value collaborations that could be pursued.
The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent ... more The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent in an undergraduate research experience (URE). Data for the study come from a survey administered at three points over a 1-yr period: before participation in the program, at the end of a Summer segment of research, and at the end of the year. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine the effect of time on perceived gains in student research skills, research confidence, and understanding of research processes. The results suggest that the students experienced different gains/benefits at developmentally different stages of their UREs. Participants reported gains in fewer areas at the end of the Summer segment compared with the end of the yearlong experience, thus supporting the notion that longer UREs offer students more benefit. Villarejo M (2010). Importance of undergraduate research for minority persistence and achievement in biology. J Higher Educ 81, 82-115.
2007 37th annual frontiers in education conference - global engineering: knowledge without borders, opportunities without passports, 2007
This paper will introduce a "Scholarship of Impact" framework for engineering education research.... more This paper will introduce a "Scholarship of Impact" framework for engineering education research. The "Scholarship of Impact" framework promotes the idea that engineering education research projects should consider impact goals early on in the design process (by focusing on key networks, collaborations, and local needs) to build scholarship around what it means to use research to inform education practice. The "Scholarship of Impact" framework will expand on the concepts of impact (evidence of change) and impact potential (capacity to cause change). Learnings from the NSF-sponsored Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education Institute for Scholarship of Engineering Education and an example "Impact Study" will be discussed.
This paper presents three lenses for interpreting design thinking: a framework on learning to bec... more This paper presents three lenses for interpreting design thinking: a framework on learning to become professionals, and two interpretations of this framework that speak broadly to aspects of 'design thinking'. The first lens draws on a framework for 'an embodied understanding of professional practice' and provides a way to describe how professionals form and organize their knowledge and skills into a particular 'professional-way-of-being'. The second and third lenses provide examples of using this framework to interpret existing results from phenomenographic studies on ways of experiencing design and ways of experiencing cross-disciplinary practice. We conclude with a discussion of how these three lenses contribute to a working synthesis of design thinking and learning.
The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent ... more The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent in an undergraduate research experience (URE). Data for the study come from a survey administered at three points over a 1-yr period: before participation in the program, at the end of a Summer segment of research, and at the end of the year. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine the effect of time on perceived gains in student research skills, research confidence, and understanding of research processes. The results suggest that the students experienced different gains/benefits at developmentally different stages of their UREs. Participants reported gains in fewer areas at the end of the Summer segment compared with the end of the yearlong experience, thus supporting the notion that longer UREs offer students more benefit. Villarejo M (2010). Importance of undergraduate research for minority persistence and achievement in biology. J Higher Educ 81, 82-115.
2007 37th Annual Frontiers In Education Conference - Global Engineering: Knowledge Without Borders, Opportunities Without Passports, 2007
In today's context, we are all challenged to consider issues of diversity and global engineering ... more In today's context, we are all challenged to consider issues of diversity and global engineering in the context of engineering education. However, little explicit guidance has been given on how to conceptualize diversity and global engineering in meaningful ways, and how to develop research questions that allow us to rigorously investigate the issues at hand. This session will provide an interactive forum for exploring those questions, finding answers collaboratively, and moving one's own work forward. To anchor the forum, we will draw on the experiences of engineering faculty and graduate students who participated in a year-long engineering education research program, the Institute for Scholarship on Engineering Education (ISEE). The session will build on a similar session offered at the 2005 FIE conference to expand the growing engineering education research community, extend the knowledge-generating work begun in the 2005 session, and add two new components: 1) a focus on the process of developing and refining a research question, and 2) an emphasis on studying diversity and global engineering issues.
2007 37th annual frontiers in education conference - global engineering: knowledge without borders, opportunities without passports, 2007
This paper will introduce a "Scholarship of Impact" framework for engineering education research.... more This paper will introduce a "Scholarship of Impact" framework for engineering education research. The "Scholarship of Impact" framework promotes the idea that engineering education research projects should consider impact goals early on in the design process (by focusing on key networks, collaborations, and local needs) to build scholarship around what it means to use research to inform education practice. The "Scholarship of Impact" framework will expand on the concepts of impact (evidence of change) and impact potential (capacity to cause change). Learnings from the NSF-sponsored Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education Institute for Scholarship of Engineering Education and an example "Impact Study" will be discussed.
over the four years of their engineering education, male students have higher confidence than wom... more over the four years of their engineering education, male students have higher confidence than women in their math and science abilities and their ability to solve open-ended problems Chachra et al. Exploring Gender and Self-confidence in Engineering Students: A Multi-method Approach.
At the time the decision was made to discontinue funding to the NSF Engineering Education Coaliti... more At the time the decision was made to discontinue funding to the NSF Engineering Education Coalitions, data in support of the impact of the coalitions were unavailable. Since then, whether an institution was a member of a coalition has been an important variable in many engineering education studies. In this panel session and paper, we present the results of three such studies and invite the audience to assess the strength of the evidence. Guided audience discussion will focus on whether the results can be used to evaluate the coalitions intervention, related research directions, and implications for future funding.
— This paper has three primary,purposes: 1) to present a classroom assessment,method,that has not... more — This paper has three primary,purposes: 1) to present a classroom assessment,method,that has not been widely discussed by engineering educators, 2) to illustrate how this method serves as sustainable assessment, and 3) to provide a specific classroom,example,of the method. The mid-term class interview involves collecting and responding to student feedback during the middle of the academic,term. The goal of
2011 Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2011
Design is a central aspect of engineering and engineering education, but is challenging to teach ... more Design is a central aspect of engineering and engineering education, but is challenging to teach and even more challenging to assess. In this special session participants co-construct an understanding of design and what aspects of design should be (and can be) assessed. Additionally, the special session will review the instrument development process (including the process of validating instruments) and will provide examples of existing instruments for assessing learners' understanding of design. These instruments measure a variety of topics and concepts related to design, have been designed for many different audiences and have been developed for different purposes. This session will equip educators with tools that are useful for assessing and promoting students' understanding of design. Additionally, this session may benefit educators and researchers interested in adopting or adapting design assessments for use with K-12 populations.
Abstract-Engineering education is an emerging discipline, and the number of people choosing this ... more Abstract-Engineering education is an emerging discipline, and the number of people choosing this career path is increasing. What pathways might we navigate on our way to becoming an engineering education researcher? How can we investigate these pathways ...
Engaging future engineers is a central topic in everyday conversations on engineering education. ... more Engaging future engineers is a central topic in everyday conversations on engineering education. Considerable investments have been made to make engineering more engaging, recruit and retain aspiring engineers, and to design an education to prepare future engineers. However, the impact of these efforts has been less than intended. It is imperative that the community reflects on progress and sets a more effective path for the future.
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