Measuring professional skills misalignment based on early-career engineers’ perceptions of engineering expertise [Elektronisk resurs]

• Professional skills have long been perceived as lacking in junior engineers. Adopting a social realist theoretical framework of knowledge in practice, a hypothesis-based survey study of early career engineers’ perceptions of engineering expertise was conducted. It investigated a professional skills readiness difference between initial career trajectories (hypothesis 1) through an analysis of engineering expertise perception, and whether this difference decreases over time as engineers mature (hypothesis 2). Both hypotheses were supported by three statistical tests which established the specific nature and size of this difference. Three themes were identified: Academic bias, Technical competence bias, and Rationality bias. Thematic analysis through the framework of these three themes indicates how context and complexity (Semantic dimension) and Knowledge and Knower (Specialisation dimension) were understood in practice. The three themes expressed challenges over these two dimensions in understanding Technical knowledge, Collaboration, and the Legitimate basis for practice, leading to recommendations for education and practice. 

Ämnesord

Engineering and Technology  (hsv)

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering  (hsv)

Embedded Systems  (hsv)

Teknik och teknologier  (hsv)

Elektroteknik och elektronik  (hsv)

Inbäddad systemteknik  (hsv)

Social Sciences  (hsv)

Educational Sciences  (hsv)

Learning  (hsv)

Samhällsvetenskap  (hsv)

Utbildningsvetenskap  (hsv)

Lärande  (hsv)

Teknikvetenskapens lärande och kommunikation  (kth)

Education and Communication in the Technological Sciences  (kth)

Electrical Engineering  (kth)

Elektro- och systemteknik  (kth)

Machine Design  (kth)

Maskinkonstruktion  (kth)

Teknik och lärande  (kth)

Technology and Learning  (kth)

Genre

government publication  (marcgt)

Indexterm och SAB-rubrik

Professional skills; Engineering education; Engineering practice; Legitimation code theory; Engineering roles