Teaching Communication in Capstone Design: The Role of the Instructor in Situated Learning

Prior writing research includes multiple qualitative studies that examine the development of writers in different contexts, including graduate students moving through their programs, undergraduates in writing courses, students in co-op experiences, and recent graduates transitioning to the workplace. These studies consistently point to the situated nature of learning and the importance of understanding meta-level skills associated with analyzing each communication situation and adapting all elements of the document or presentation to fit the specific demands of that situation.

Research Questions: While a number of studies tracing student development exist, few have focused on the role of student-faculty interactions in this development. Yet both situated learning and genre theory suggest that these interactions are critical. Moreover, these studies suggest that while dedicated writing courses such as first-year composition and technical writing have an important role to play in student development, writing within students’ disciplinary courses is also a powerful force. In engineering, the ability to communicate effectively is a central student outcome, yet little of the engineering education research on this issue draws on the deep body of writing research to identify specific pedagogical strategies engineering faculty can employ. As a result, this study addressed the question, “How do instructors interactions with students around communication assignments influence learning with respect to effective communication practices?”

Major Findings: The literature review provided the theoretical framework for interpreting the data and describing the student-faculty interactions. Using this lens, the case study illustrates the critical role these interactions play in student learning. Even with assignments patterned after workplace expectations, students can still experience a sharp bifurcation between classroom and workplace contexts, and as a result may not necessarily develop transferable communication skills. The meeting observations pointed to multiple instances in which the course instructor relied on “requirements” as the rationale for what students needed to include in their reports, rather than emphasizing the functionality and value of the information to the intended users. The student interviews revealed a relatively high level of frustration with requirements that seemed to lack a clear function, and these frustrations represented lost opportunities for targeted situated learning to occur.

Recommendations: The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for integrating communication into engineering courses in ways that support student learning:

In addition, the study highlights multiple future research projects, including the following: