2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The majority of engineering education graduate students are trained as engineers. Thus, at the start of the program, they often lack familiarity with the educational theories and research methodologies necessary for scholarly investigation. Since graduates of the engineering education program are expected to be scholarly practitioners and researchers, equipping students with the theoretical knowledge and research skills necessary for educational inquiry is crucial. In one of the pioneering graduate programs in engineering education, the course “Developmental Theories and Engineering Thinking” serves as a foundational course which provides the theoretical basis necessary for students to understand learning processes and develop frameworks that inform engineering education research. During curriculum revision, semi-structured student interviews and analysis of prior syllabi revealed that improvements are needed to better prepare current students to understand education theories and develop theoretical frameworks to their research contexts, thus calling for a redesign of the course.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the process employed by the instructor to redesign the course through the principles of backward design approach. The enduring outcome of the course was re-established to focus on helping students integrate learning theories with engineering epistemology to address contemporary challenges in engineering education research. Constructive alignment principles guided the selection of teaching and learning activities (TLAs) and assessment tasks (ATs), ensuring coherence between intended learning outcomes, TLAs, and ATs. Key implementation changes included expanding the theoretical scope beyond traditional learning theories to explicitly incorporate engineering epistemology, emphasizing how engineering students develop disciplinary thinking and essential skills. Among the challenges in the course is equipping the necessary theories with depth in understanding beyond an undergraduate level and skills to learn and understand education both classical and contemporary theories for research and practice. Active learning approaches, particularly cooperative learning, are harnessed to incorporate both independent and group learning strategies, including concept mapping, Jigsaw learning activity, Group Investigation, and structured discussions were systematically integrated to facilitate deep learning and knowledge construction, as well as the skill to read education research literature. Assessments were redesigned to promote students’ learning through interconnected assignments that progressively build students’ ability to synthesize learning theories, developmental theories, motivational theories, and engineering-specific epistemological perspectives into theoretical frameworks for engineering education research. Regular instructor feedback and peer review processes were embedded throughout the course to support continuous learning improvement.
The course is redesigned to bridge the conceptual gap between engineering practice and educational scholarship, providing students with robust theoretical foundations for their research endeavours. This systematic redesign approach provides a replicable framework for other instructors seeking to enhance graduate-level courses in engineering education, illustrating how backward design and constructive alignment as well as the utilization of structured teaching and learning activities such as Cooperative Learning can create more coherent and effective learning experiences.