Exploring Engineering Students' Journey of Transformative Learning through Their First Cooperative Education Industry Experiences

About This Grant

The STEM workforce needs to be well-equipped with knowledge and competencies to ensure our nation’s global competitiveness. Experiential learning experiences like cooperative education (co-op) offer an apprentice-style approach to preparing the next generation of engineers and STEM professionals. Understanding how these authentic learning experiences fundamentally shape students’ learning and professional development is essential. This project will investigate how cooperative education (co-op) experiences influence engineering students’ readiness for the workforce by comparing various types of co-op experiences from the lens of transformative learning theory. Grounded in Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, this research will examine how first-time co-op experiences change students’ perspectives, learning gains, behaviors, and sense of professional identity. A variety of co-op experiences will be investigated – industry-drive, research-based, international, remote or virtual, etc. This research will be conducted at the University of Cincinnati, who is an institutional leader and nationally recognized for co-op experiences that engineering students integrate as part of their academic and professional journey. As part of this research, data will be collected from over 1,200 engineering students who participate in a variety of co-op experiences. Co-op pathways will be investigated across a variety of variables, and student comparisons will enable the investigative team to understand how co-op timing and diverse co-op experiences shape the student experience. The team will use surveys and interviews to identify patterns of change and determine how students’ experiences and co-op contexts influence student development. The use of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory will enable new knowledge to be gained around learning, challenges, dilemmas, reflection, and student development. This new knowledge to be generated as part of this project will inform academic practices around co-op experiences and inform industry co-op practices as well. This new knowledge will also enable STEM educators to understand the pathways to better prepare engineers and other STEM professionals for the workforce and support authentic student development. The findings, which will be disseminated widely across engineering and STEM education communities, will benefit universities by informing co-op structures, practices, and curricula, as well as support employers improve mentoring practices and strengthen co-op experiences. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.