Development of Professional Competency through Professional Identity Formation in a PBL Curriculum

This research paper describes a study of the student professional competency development as experienced by students in an upper-division project-based learning (PBL) curriculum that emphasis the development of the student professional identity. The specific professional competencies of focus for this study, based on the ABET student outcomes in Criteria 3, are: 1) an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams (3.d); 2) an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility (3.0; and 3) an ability to communicate effectively (3.g). The motivation and background for this research is to build on existing efforts and research in bridging the professional competency gap between the ability of current graduates and the current and future needs of the engineering profession. This research work focuses on the experiences of students at a two-year, upper division, PBL engineering program. During the design of the PBL program, an approach for professional identity development was created and implemented. It builds on previous work from what is currently understood about how students develop professional competencies in engineering education and the role that professional identity formation has in developing the professional competencies. The approach and its curricular elements will be presented as part of the research paper. The student development was evaluated through two quantitative instruments developed for this research. One instrument focused on professional competency practice as an individual, and the other focused on professional competency practice in a team setting. Results of this study show an increase in professional competency performance for students completing the PBL program. The non-PBL group showed no overall growth in performance. Neither group showed growth in importance from before to after completing their upper-division experience. The quantitative study results will be presented and discussed as part one of a two part mixed methods study.