Development of Concepts in Microengineering Teaching and Practice
| Responsable du projet | Martín Vergara Wilson |
| Directeur de la thèse | Laure Kloetzer |
| Résumé |
This research will study the development of concepts in
microengineering teaching and practice. The issue of how concepts
are formed and transformed, this is, how one comes to know in a
determined and specific way, is at the core of teaching and
training, as well as of work activity. In educational psychology,
one of the most salient attempts to account for the appropriation
of conceptual knowledge is the research on conceptual change, which
has also been highly influential in engineering education. Over five
decades, this current has deepened our understanding of concepts and
important insights for pedagogical applications have been derived
from it. However, different versions of this current, as well as
their meta-theoretical underpinnings, have been criticized for not
accounting for the specific act of thinking performed in the use of
concepts, or the process by and contexts in which they emerge and
change. In Vygotsky’s work, conversely, we find a better-suited
theory of concepts to account for what is missing in mainstream
theories. In the Vygotskian theory, additionally, we find
methodological principles for the study of concept development. In
such a perspective, a concept cannot be taken as a thing comprised
of parts, but as a process comprising successive moments. This
movement, however, is unknown and inaccessible to the naked eye. To
study the development of concepts, then, we need specific methods to
set them in motion, this is, to elicit their development. Drawing on
those principles, and in the frame of a collaborative research, this
research aims to identify and describe core concepts for
microengineering training and practice, and the development paths
these concepts follow. |
| Mots-clés |
Concept development; Professional learning; Cultural-historical theory; Developmental methodologies; Engineering education |
| Type de projet | Recherche de thèse |
| Domaine de recherche | Sociocultural Psychology; Workplace learning and development; Adult development |
| Etat | En cours |
| Début de projet | 1-9-2020 |
| Fin du projet | 31-8-2024 |
| Contact | Martín Vergara Wilson |