| Project leader Professor Tim McCarthy (left) is pictured with project... Project leader Professor Tim McCarthy (left) is pictured with project officer Tom Goldfinch. |
Grant puts UOW at forefront of engineering education research
12 Jun 2008 | Kate McIlwain
A project that aims to improve learning in introductory engineering mechanics has been awarded almost $150,000 in funding.
Researchers in UOW's Faculty of Engineering have received the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (formerly the Carrick Institute) research grant from the Council’s Competitive Grants program.
The project will be led by Professor Timothy McCarthy with Mr Tom Goldfinch as the project officer. The project also brings in collaborative partners from the University of Technology, Sydney, and the University of Tasmania, including former UOW academic Dr Anna Carew.
The proposal, titled A Pro-Active Approach to Addressing Student Learning Diversity in Engineering Mechanics, was one of seven applications awarded unconditional approval from 88 applications nationwide, and is due to begin at the end of 2008.
The project aims to improve learning in introductory engineering mechanics by researching the diversity among engineering students and designing a process for targeting new learning resources to address specific learning areas for individual students.
Professor McCarthy said this would also develop a set of tools to provide effective, targeted and efficient supplementary learning experiences for students while minimising the time burden on educators.
The project builds upon a current Educational Strategic Development Fund (ESDF) research project involving the same team of researchers. The ESDF project is already identifying statistically validated predictors of poor student performance in introductory mechanics.
This grant from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council follows a previous Carrick Research Grant led by Dr Carew, Professor McCarthy, Associate Professor Paul Cooper and Associate Professor Sharon Nightingale.
"It places the Faculty of Engineering at the forefront of Australian engineering education research," Professor McCarthy said.
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