Enculturation into Engineering Professional Practice

Abstract

The importance of communication skills for engineering professionals is widely acknowledged. Research in the authors’ group indicates that along with other cognitive and behavioral skills, employers of new engineering graduates place high value on communication skills. Here, the authors argue that becoming a professional engineer means entering in to a particular community of practice, one that communicates in a way that is specific to that community of practice. Engineers employ, consciously or sub-consciously, a variety of Vygotskyian psychological tools, and becoming an engineer necessitates new graduates understanding the nature and use of such tools within that community. Recent research in the authors’ group suggests students that engage in experiential learning as part of a work-integrated learning program in engineering are rapidly enculturated into the community of practice that forms the engineering community. This, it appears, occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation in the community as these ‘newcomers’ work alongside practicing engineers in a form of cognitive apprenticeship. In doing so they gradually adopt mores of communication, eventually becoming legitimate, fully-participating members of the engineering community, and they developed a sense of belonging that is not easily achieved in conventional programs of study in higher education.

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