Thematic analysis of influencers on continuing professional learning of tenure track engineering faculty as assistant professors at an RU/VH institution

“Although the need for lifelong learning of professionals is stressed through university education, the patent differences between learning as a student, within a controlled framework focusing on accessible outcomes, and learning as a professional have not been clarified” (Webster-Wright, 2009, p. 708). Assistant professors are entry level professionals in academia who been prepared through their extensive education process to be lifelong learners and yet it is unknown how these assistant professors are engaging, or being engaged by others, in continuing their professional learning (CPL) for short-term and long-term success in academia as a career. This study aimed to understand who and/or what influenced tenure-track engineering faculty’s continuing professional learning early in their career. An exploratory qualitative thematic analysis was conducted using responses to semi-structured interviews from 13 tenure-track engineering faculty members at a Carnegie classified as Research Universities (very high research activity) institution about their professional development experiences when they were assistant professors. A stratified purposeful criterion sampling strategy was employed to maximize the diversity in background and experiences participants brought to the study. The results that emerged from the data was that the influencers of CPL were (1) institutional impacts on learning, (2) self-directed learning, (3) socially constructed learning, and (4) mentored learning. The findings identified within the themes was that (1) no one dominant pathway existed in the continuing professional learning of tenure-track engineering faculty as assistant professors; and (2) the four influencers – institution impacts on learning, self-directed learning, socially constructed learning, and mentored learning – can be combined in multiple ways to construct the continuing professional learning experience for an individual faculty member. A series of metaphorical equations were constructed to model the collective continuing professional learning of an individual faculty member including the detailed contribution of the individual influencers. Additionally, a framework for constructing CPL environments was proposed as an adaptation of Bransford’s How People Learn (HPL) framework. The researcher acknowledges this was an exploratory qualitative research study with a small, specialized sample size (N=13) so these findings are not generalizable to the larger population of faculty, engineering faculty, or professionals

Engineering innovativeness

There is widespread agreement in society that innovations, derived from improvements in the use of technology and science, have significantly improved our lives in the past 100 years (National Science Board, 2007). This qualitative research study explores the description of innovative behavior in engineers or ‘engineering innovativeness.’ The goal of this exploratory research is to identify the major agreements and understandings, or lack thereof, about how engineers innovate in products, processes and concepts. A purposeful convenience sample of eight expert and award winning engineers and engineering entrepreneurship and innovation educators was used in the study.The research questions were: “What is an innovation?” and “What is the set of individual attributes (key skills, knowledge, attitudes, and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors) that enable engineers to translate their creative ideas into practices (innovations) that benefit society?” The interview protocol consisted of open-ended questions for a semi-structured interview. Participants were asked to reflect on their own innovative experiences and those of other engineers with whom they were familiar and identify attributes associated with innovative behavior by engineers. Inductive analysis of the data was done through open coding, construction of a code book, consolidation of emerging themes though collaborative discussions and strength testing of quotes and assertions. All study participants identified an innovation as something new, useful and adopted by a community. The most important innovative behavior attributes of engineers suggested by study participants were: domain knowledge, opportunity recognition, teamwork skills, curiosity, risk taking, and persistence. Creativity as a unique attribute was seen as essential to jump start the innovation process but clearly not sufficient for getting an idea successfully introduced into the marketplace. Entrepreneurial behavior was also seen as a critical component of the innovation process supporting implementation of the new idea but not sufficient unto itself for creating a successful innovation. Innovative behavior was perceived by some participants as a process that can be taught or knowledge that can be acquired. Other participants perceived some aspects of engineering innovativeness as relatively fixed personality characteristics, meaning “some engineers have it and some don't.” Next steps in this research are to pursue interviews with a larger sample of engineering innovators and investigate the innovative behavior of engineers by stages of the innovation process

Returning students in engineering education: making a case for “experience capital”

Using an emancipatory theoretical framework, this exploratory qualitative study captures the perceptions of professional non-traditional students with several years of experience in one or more disciplines returning for a doctoral degree in engineering education. This study addresses the research question: how do professional non-traditional students engage with a doctoral program? Participants were selected using criterion sampling from a single doctoral program and they were interviewed. These professional non-traditional students described the experiences they bring to the doctoral program and reactions to those experiences from their academic colleagues. Open coding is used to identify common themes. The results of this study are that professional non-traditional students (1) come with a more developed habitus and substantial capital, which (2) prepare them well for the program, and (3) significantly affects their engagement during their PhD program. These results position the participants‘ experiences at the partial union of their human, cultural, economic, and symbolic capitals. The participant‘s capital developed and accumulated from their professional work and life experiences is what we call 'experience capital.

MLKL trafficking and accumulation at the plasma membrane control the kinetics and threshold for necroptosis

Mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL) is the terminal protein in the pro-inflammatory necroptotic cell death program. Here the authors show that MLKL trafficking and plasma membrane accumulation are crucial necroptosis checkpoints, and that accumulation of phosphorylated MLKL at intercellular junctions promotes necroptosis