Activities
Magazines/Bulletins
Documentation Centre
Seminar Programme
Conferences attended and hosted
Research Group Meetings
Research Projects
Calendar of Meetings and Seminars
Magazines/Bulletins
Our magazine, For Engineering & Science Educators, is one
of the major vehicles for disseminating information on research and projects
in education in engineering, science and related disciplines in South
Africa. Contributions are received from
across the spectrum of disciplines and institutions.
The
magazine, For Engineering & Science Educators,
is published bi-annually by CREE.
The CREE Bulletin is aimed at increasing the awareness of the
work of CREE within the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at
UCT. It is also sent to local tertiary institutions and used as a
means of sharing information about conferences, seminars etc in the Western Cape.
We invite local institutions and organisations to write to us and share
their news and views.
Documentation Centre
We have a selection of Papers
and articles in our Documentation Centre, mostly related to engineering
education in South
Africa. See our list of Publications. Copies of
these papers are available for the cost of Photocopying.
Seminar Programme
Regional seminars are held throughout the year
to promote educational research in engineering, science and related
diciplines.
Previous Seminars:
Year 2006:
“Status in Conceptual Learning: An example from
Transmission Genetics”
Peter Hewson, Professor of Science Education, Curriculum &
Instruction, School
of Education,
University of
Wisconsin-Madison
Date:
18 October 2006
“Feedback on IIWE Conference on Women in Engineering – Paris, July
2006”
Nobathembu Mangesana and
Ridovhonani Rambau
Date: 23 August 2006
“Niyaqonda
– Do you understand? Exploring
notions of understanding at LEAP Science and Maths Schools”
Bruce Kloot, Department of Applied Science, Cape Peninsula
University of
Technology
Date: 7 August 2006
“Physics
teachers’ planning – A closer look at cooperative teacher
training”
Presented by Gabriela Jonas – Ahrend, Department of Physics
Education, Dortmund University,
Germany
Date: 3 August 2006
“ A
critical look at first year learning in Chemical Engineering”
Presented by Linda Kotta, Department of Chemical Engineering UCT
Date: 22 June 2006
“Methodological Meditations on
Discourse Analysis”
Presented by Cecelia Jacobs,
Cape Peninsula University
of Technology
Date: 24 May 2006
“Using Computer Animations to
Improve Student Learning”
Presented by Kim Bolton, University College
of Boras, Sweden
Date: 20 April 2006
“Building
a Community of Practice: Useful Thinking Tools for Conceptualising Learning
both for Students and Educational Researchers”
Presented by Jenni Case,
Department of Chemical Engineering, UCT.
Date: 28 March 2006
Year
2005:
“Scaffolding
the Use of Web Sources in a Project-Based Curriculum in Engineering”
Presented by Arlene Archer, The
Writing Centre, Academic Development Programme, UCT.
Date: 27 September 2005
“Academic Development Courses and
Student Throughput: Using Qualitative Research on the Course Level to
Look for Relationships”
Presented by Kate Bennie, Dept
of Mathematics, UCT.
Date: 14 September 2005
“Does
WebCT Provide Flexibility in Terms of Learning and Thinking Styles?”
Presented by Liezel van Dyk,
Dept Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Pretoria.
Date: 10 August 2005
“What
Educational Problems Does Technology Help Resolve?”
Presented by: Dr. Dick Ng'ambi,
Co-ordinator: Research and Learning Design and Shaheeda Jaffer,
Co-ordinator: Curriculum Projects (Centre for Educational Technology,
UCT.
Date: 27 July 2005
Year
2004:
“Access,
Attrition and Academic Under-performance in First Year Engineering: A
Pilot Study and Insights from the Disciplines of Education, Psychology and
Sociology.”
Presented by: Laurie Woollacott,
School of Process and Materials Engineering,
Wits.
Date: 9 November 2004
Time: 15h30 - 16h30
Venue: LC2A, Leslie
Commerce Building,
UCT.
“Coherency
in Engineering Curricula”
Presented by: Prof Yunus
Ballim, University of Witwatersrand
Date: Wednesday 29 September
2004
Time: 13h00 - 14h00
Venue: Seminar Room, Civil Engineering.
“Chalkdust in the Sand - some lessons from a township
science classroom”
Presented by: Dr. Jonathan Clark, COSAT.
Date: Monday 26 July 2004
Time: 15h30 - 16h30
Venue: LC2A Leslie
Commerce Building,
Upper Campus, UCT.
“Making
Physics More Accessible to Students with Poor Numeracy
Skills”
Presented by: Gregor
Leigh: Dept of Physics, Cape
Technikon &
UCT
Date: Monday 14 June 2004
Time: 15h30 - 16h30
Venue: LC2A Leslie
Commerce Building,
Upper Campus, UCT.
First
time entering students at South African technikons
(even those enrolling for science courses) are typically characterised by
having poor numeracy and problem solving skills
coupled with poor attitudes towards learning physics. Their secondary
education experience of the subject has left them with little fondness or
appreciation for physics, which they perceive as a purely formula-driven,
mathematical discipline with little or no connection to either their
everyday experiences or their future careers. Poor first year pass
rates are but one consequence of such attitudes and
under-preparedness. Inappropriate epistemologies hamper life-long
learning by precluding students from developing conceptual mastery and from
assimilating valuable generic skills such as problem solving.
To
address this situation, and the declining pass rates among Physics 1
students at the Cape
Technikon, a new,
research-based teaching strategy was introduced for the first year physics
course in which multi-representational problem solving approaches were
explicitly developed in order to provide an underlying foundation for the
physics. It was found that more students were able to make
appropriate use of the mathematical formulae needed to numerically solve a
physics question after progressing through a series of non-mathematical
representations of the particular problem situation. And, as students’ confidence improved, so too did
their attitudes towards the
subject. Post course testing showed a shift towards a more positive
view of learning physics which also manifested itself in a higher pass rate
in the Physics 1 course.
Gregor's
Seminar was attended by 18 people from Physics, chemistry engineering and
other departmenst at UCT as well as
representatives from several local institutions
“Digging
for Gold - Using Foundation Programmes to Identify Students with
Potential”
Presented by: Dr. Marissa
Rollnick: College
of Science at
WITS
Date: Wednesday 26 May
2004
Time: 15h30 - 16h30
Venue: LC2A Leslie
Commerce Building,
Upper Campus, UCT.
The
seminar outlined a proposed book on the subject of access courses in
science based subjects in South African and abroad. Throughout the world
there is a problem of providing access to science and engineering to
historically excluded sections of the population – in the US referred to as minorities, but in South Africa constituting a
majority. In South
Africa higher education Institutions
have responded to this problem by establishing access or foundation
programmes from as far back as the mid 1970's, though the real growth in
these programmes was in the 1990's. In June 2001 the first Indaba (or
meeting) of those involved in Science and Technology Foundation programmes
was held in Johannesburg and the proceedings consisted of a directory of
these programmes as well as an exploration of associated issues. (Pinto,
2001).
Some
of the most successful of these foundation programmes were based at
universities characterised by a high research output, consequently there
has been a great deal of research into the effectiveness of these
programmes both at a micro and an macro level in the last decade. Similar
research in other countries exists, but is patchy and often based on small
groups of students. This is possibly because these programmes do not
generally run at universities where research is the norm. Thus research on
access students and their programmes is an area in which South Africa
has much to offer.
The
seminar examined these programmes and their impact at two levels -
international issues and student level research from Southern
Africa. The seminar also dealt with the aims and philosophies
of programmes, target groups and their relationship to higher Education
Policy.
Marissa's Seminar
was very well attended with 40 people from science and engineering
faculties at UCT and several local institutions.
Year
2003:
- 19
March - Why all the fuss about variation? - Prof Duncan Fraser,
Dept of Chemical Engineering, UCT. It has been proposed that
variation is a key to learning, and it is easy to see that unless we
are exposed to variation, we are not challenged to re-examine what we
currently know. This is how research also progresses. In
this seminar Prof Fraser explored the nature of variation as it
applies to teaching in professional disciplines, starting with studies
done into why Americn students do worse in
standardised tests than their Japanese counterparts. This leads
to the conclusion that learning is determined by the nature of the
variation to which we are exposed. He then examined how we
respond when exposed to any form of variation, and introduced a new
way in which learning may be conceived. The seminar ended with
examining the implications of all this for our teaching.
Year
2002:
- April
2002 - Dr. Ulrike Rivett, Dept of Civil Engineering, UCT presented a
seminar on 'Preparing Students for the Workplace'. During 2001,
management training workshops were run at UCT as a pilot study to
investigate the feasibility of introducing these types of courses on a
permanent basis. The talk gave an overview of the investigation of the
participants perception of the course as well
as attitude changes and paradigm shifts expressed by the participants.
- In
May, Dr. Jenni Case and Jeff Jawitz reported on the findings of a
study into vacation work experiences of a group of final year Civil
and Chemical Engineering students at UCT. The title of the
seminar was "Smile nicely make the tea -
but will I ever be taken seriously?
- Noeleen
Murray and Brenda Cooper from the Centre for African Studies (CAS) at
UCT presented a seminar on the 18 July which aimed to start a
discussion amongst Engineering and Built Environment educators and
students about the role of the complimentary studies elective course
that is currently offered in the Centre for African Studies at UCT.
- In
August three UCT engineering students presented:
"Engineering ... but with a feminine touch?" The three
students were asked by CREE to give feedback on a conference that they
had attended in Paris,
France
in June. The conference was organised by IIWE (International
Institute of Women in Engineering).
Year
2001:
- In
March 2001 a seminar was presented by Prof Nan Yeld of the Academic
Development Programme at UCT. This presentation focused on factors
contributing to the increased Matriculation pass rate in 2000, as well
as some implications for 2001 and beyond. 12 people attended.
- Also
in March 2001, Prof Tom Regan from Maryland
University in the USA
discussed an interesting approach to first-year engineering design
projects. Prof Regan is currently heading the NSF ECSEL
Coalition Project. 15 people attended.
- In
May Jenni Case reported on her PhD study that investigated students'
experiences of a second-year chemical engineering course. The
seminar focused on how the research was conducted but also touched on
the implications that the findings have for teaching in undergraduate
engineering and science. 16 people attended.
- In
August 2001 a seminar was presented by Mary Lister, Tessa Davies and
Karin de Jager. The topic was
'Accessing electronic journal resources and using e-technology to keep
up to date with literature in one's field'. 29 people attended.
- Prof
Nan Yeld shared with us some very interesting research that they are
doing in the US
called "Stereotype Threat". This is a phenomenon argued to
contribute to the relatively poor achievement on standardised tests
(and any high stakes testing programmes or situations) of groups
perceived to be 'at risk' academically. For example, African
Americans on the SAT tests, women in maths and science, ex-DET
students at UCT. 17 people attended.
Year 2000:
- A
study group of 22 engineering educators and related administrators
from institutions in Sweden
and Denmark
visited us in March 2000. They presented a seminar on Engineering
Education in Sweden
and informal discussions were held on women in engineering, teaching
and possible collaboration with Sweden. 35 people
attended.
- Biddy
Greene arranged for Dr. Sheila Ochugboju
from St. Hilda's College, Oxford to
give a talk on her experiences of attracting women into science and
engineering in the UK.
20 people attended.
- Paula
Ensor and Evelyn Dhliwayo presented a report
on teaching styles and approaches to learning in engineering. 15 people
attended.
- Dr.
Chris Redlinghuys from the Dept of
Mechanical Engineering shared his thoughts about Creativity: some
thoughts on its essence, importance, assessment and enhancement.
27 people attended.
- A
three-fold presentation was held in October. 23 people attended. The
following topics were covered with discussions taking place after the
seminar:
- Feedback on both the American Society of Engineering Educators
(ASEE) annual conference held in St Louis
and the 2nd Southern African Conference in Engineering Education held
in Gauteng
during September was presented by Mr. Brandon Reed, Dept of
Mechanical Engineering, U.C.T.
- Report-back on both the 2nd Women in Engineering Conference
held in Gauteng in September and
Workshop for Women in Engineering (Self-empowerment and assertiveness
training) held in Cape Town
in September. Ms. Shehnaaz Moosa, Dept of Chemical Engineering, U.C.T,
presented these topics.
- The proposal to form a Southern African Society of Engineering
Education (SASEE) was presented by
Prof Duncan Fraser, Dept of Chemical Engineering and Co-ordinator of
CREE, U.C.T.
Previous Years:
- April
1996, information was shared about projects and research interests,
and the establishment of the Centre was discussed.
- October
1996, focused on aspects of educational research methodology - Prof
Cedric Linder (University
of Western Cape).
- March
1997, Engineering education reform in the USA
- Prof Gretchen Kalonji (University of Washington,
Seattle)
- May
1998, False Dichotomies in thinking about teaching, learning and
laboratory work - Prof Dick Gunston, Science
& Technology Education, Monash
University, Melbourne, Australia.
- June
1998, Curriculum Development Workshop: Responding to the New ECSA
Criteria for Engineering: Building Capacity for Curriculum Development
in Engineering in the Western
Cape - Jeff Jawitz, (UCT.)
- March
1999, A talk on the work of the Centre for Educational Development -
Shirley Booth, Associate Proffessor in
Higher Educational Development at Chalmers University of Technology
and head of the Centre for Educational Development. Goteborg, Sweden.
- June
1999, Ups and Downs of Qualitative Data Collection - Jenni Case -
Chemical Engineering, (UCT).
- August,
1999, Implementing a major curriculum review
in Engineering - the UTS experience - Dr. Robin Braun, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).
CONFERENCES ATTENDED DURING 2003:
- Brandon
Reed attended a workshop organised by the NRF in Gauteng during July. As a result of
this workshop, he took a conference paper that he had previously
written and together with new data, turned it into a paper that was
published during December 2003 in an accredited journal: Reed,
B., & Case, J. (2003). Factors influencing learners' choice of
Mechanical Engineering as a career. African Journal of Research in
Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 7, 73-83.
- Brandon
presented a plenary paper of the same title at the 6th National
Conference for Technology Educators in September 2003.
- In
the context of his PhD research, he wrote a paper on an analysis of
the pilot data that he had done during the sabbatical period that was
accepted for a conference that took place in early January 2004:
Reed, B., & Case, J. (2004). Learners’
conceptions of technology: A phenomenographic
perspective. Paper presented at the 12th Annual Conference of
SAARMSTE, University
of Cape Town.
- While
in Uppsala, Brandon presented a seminar in the
Department of Computer Systems to their research group interested in
phenomenography and activity theory entitled, “Learners'
Experience of Technology”.
CONFERENCES
ATTENDED DURING 2000:
- Jeff
Jawitz attended the 9th Annual Southern African Power Engineering
Conference (SAUPEC) at the University
of Natal in
January. The first plenary was addressed by both Jeff Jawitz
of the University of Cape Town and Dr. Jonathan Jansen of University of Durban-Westville. Both
speakers motivated for engineering lecturers to give greater priority
to the educational aspects of their work. The Conference was
well attended by both staff and students and by representatives from
industry. This conference provides an important mentoring
environment for engineering graduates and post-graduates.
- Brandon
Reed attended the 2000 ASEE Conference in Saint Louis, Missouri
from the 18th – 21st June 2000.
The conference’s
theme was appropriately "Engineering
Education Beyond the Millennium". This
conference had well over 1700 presenters covering 12 specific session
topics. These topics included: ABET 2000, assessment, communications,
curriculum, distance education, diversity, educational methods,
industrial partnerships, international/global, professional
development and web technology. This conference followed the current
trend of distributing the proceedings on a CD. Another feature
of this conference was the exposition that was held in the same venue.
More than 70 of the top engineering/education companies were in
attendance covering the majority of the session topics.
- In
August, Biddy and John Greene went to the International Conference
on Engineering and Computer Education (ICECE 2000) in São Paulo. This conference was
co-hosted by the USA-based Institute
of Electrical
and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The main emphasis was on web-based
teaching and learning, and other themes that emerged included
motivating writing activity, and the changing nature of engineering
education. Many of the other papers dealt with different facets of the
use of computer technology in education. Some interesting contacts
were made during their visit, one of which resulted in Osvaldo Clua and Maria Feldgen from Argentina contributing an
article for the November issue of the CREE magazine.
- The
Second South African Women in Engineering Conference was held on 27
September 2000 at the Vaal Triangle Technikon, Gauteng with 63 delegates attending. The
themes were: Attraction of more women into engineering; raising the
profile of women in engineering; training projects for women in
engineering; building support for women in engineering and research
projects. One of the outcomes was the strengthening of regional
links, in the Western Cape and
nationally and setting up a task group to form a Society for Women in
Engineering in Southern Africa.
- The
Second Southern African Conference on Engineering Education took
place on the 28 - 29 September 2000 at the Vaal
Triangle Technikon. The organising committee consisted of the
three Northern Province Technikons: Vaal
Triangle, Wits and Pretoria.
CREE's involvement included setting up a programme committee and reviewing
abstracts. 104 delegates registered and there was positive
feedback from them all. A total of 51 papers and 2 posters were
presented on these two days. The themes covered were the following:
Women in Engineering; Teaching & Learning in the New Millennium;
Curriculum Development for Outcome-based Learning; The role of
Industry in Engineering Education and Quality Assurance in Engineering
Education. The objectives of this conference were to Promote
Engineering Education as a field of research; Promote co-operation in
Engineering Education, nationally & internationally; and Promote
projects to increase the proportion of female Engineering
graduates. One of the outcomes of this conference was that a
task team was set up to form a Southern African Society for
Engineering Educators.
- Nic
Marais attended the Frontiers in Engineering Education (FIE 2000)
in October. This annual international conference serves as one of
two premier engineering conferences in the USA. In the recent past
the overwhelming focus was the shift to outcomes based accreditation,
but the emphasis has now moved to improved assessment and evaluation
practices. The OBE accreditation in the USA appears to have
succeeded in highlighting the need for continuous improvement in
educational and curricular practices – it is no
longer acceptable to have purely
administrative/mechanistic approaches to quality assurance within the
curriculum.
In particular, the items of considerable attention at the conference were:
*development of writing skills and its use in achievement and assessment of
outcomes*multi-disciplinary teamwork involving project-based learning
across engineering and non-technical disciplines, as well as vertical
integration (junior and senior year students) major shift in emphasis to professionalism
and ethics (following space shuttle and other failures!?). These topics are
taught in dedicated courses or modules to ensure coverage and competency
rather than a piece-meal approach in design courses.
Research Group Meetings
Weekly research group
meetings are held at U.C.T. consisting of people who are actively working
on engineering education research projects, or are interested in such
projects. The idea is to encourage and help one another do more
effective work. They share thoughts on work in progress and discuss issues
that they are facing.
One common theme that has
emerged is the need to know how to deal with the ethical issues relating to
research using human subjects and what boundaries need to be drawn so that
we can know when we come across them in our research. Another helpful
development from these meetings has been the realisation that a number of
us are looking at issues around problem solving, so those involved will be
meeting separately for more specific discussions around this topic. These
meetings also help to let people see that everyone else is having similar
problems.
Calendar
of Events:
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Date
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EVENT
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Time
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Venue
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29 July 2008
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CREE Reading Group Session on:
"Identity" by Kevin Williams
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15:00 - 16:00
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To be announced
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