Complete thesis - Murdoch University

With the development of ENG260 Requirements Engineering, as the first of the core SEunits offered in the BE(SE) degree, the decision was made to offer the unit as a seriesof workshops rather than in the traditional lecture/tutorial/laboratory style. The overallcontext to the study is described in Appendix A.Examination and reflection on the learning environment provided in ENG260 was triggeredby several changes that occurred over the period 2000-2001. The student cohort for ENG260was comprised predominantly of SE majors, with most students having completed their firstyear at Murdoch. The implication of this was an enculturation to the environment in theSchool of Engineering, as well as a clear individual motivation to do well in this unit – itwould determine student ability to complete the degree in their chosen discipline.In 2000 University policy changed to enable students with qualifications from a near-by technicalcollege to articulate into programmes in the School of Engineering. These studentscame to a 3-year Engineering Technology degree at the commencement of second year. Consequentlythey enrolled with very different expectations of the learning environment, whichinternal evidence indicated were impacting on their success. Predictions were that these studentswould predominate from 2002/2003, so a pro-active approach to addressing articulationwas appropriate.An additional impetus for reflection and examination of the learning environment, and inparticular the teaching style, in ENG260 was a surprisingly strong bi-polar distribution ofthe final marks for the cohort of 2001. This could be directly attributed to low performancein the final exam, and warranted investigation, primarily of the literature of engineeringeducation.5.2.2 Cycle 1: apprenticeshipThe prime issue that acted as trigger for this cycle was to provide a more ‘authentic’environment for learning, in order to facilitate transfer. Since the discipline is not practicedas lectures and tutorials, it was considered possibly more appropriate to model learning assituated. The issue of students articulating into the unit was also a motivator for reflectionon the unit. Figure 6.1 provides a visual representation of the Cycle 1 of this study.Cycle 1aThe first task was to examine the perceptions identified in the initial reflection. This wasbased on the examination of several bodies of literature:• what do practitioners of RE say about graduate learning221