International Conference of the Learning Sciences (2014): Cognitive Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Engineering Design

Abstract: This is an empirical ethnographic study of how engineers in both undergraduate design courses and the professional workplace engage in engineering design. Our findings suggest that the organizational contexts constitute processes of design differently, in ways that challenge the typical rhetoric of undergraduate education that project courses are intended to provide students with “real world” experience.

Lauff, C., Weidler-Lewis, J., O’Connor, K., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M., “Cognitive Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Engineering Design,” International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Boulder, CO, June, 2014.