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All technology came from someone using a form of engineering at one time or
another, and in that sense, engineering is the foundation of innovation in our modern
world. Technology has left me fascinated my whole life, and I’ve wanted to become part
of such innovation. Wanting to play my part in contributing towards the development of
technology, I chose to make electrical engineering my course of study. The problem with
becoming an electrical engineer (as well as any engineer) is the complexity of the
coursework that all engineers will experience within their education. This complexity is
due to the fact that you deal with such advanced concepts like robotics, circuitry, lasers
etc. Trying to learn these difficult concepts must have its hardships, and it makes me
wonder about the education behind becoming an engineer.
To explore how one becomes an engineer, I decided to research articles on
engineering education. These articles allow one to gain a perspective on engineering
education, because they are genres developed on the information and principles of
engineers. First of all, genres are not just forms. “[Genres] are frames for social action,
locations within which meaning is constructed” (Swales, 2). Genres are responses to
reoccurring situations that people encounter. “Genre develop, then, because they respond
appropriately to situations that writers encounter repeatedly” (Swales, 2).The articles that
I found through the UCF library and Google, all discuss methods of education in
engineering to benefit those in that course of study like me. I will be analyzing these
three articles from the field, looking specifically at the genre setting, subject, participants,
features, and patterns.

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Subject
Finding these articles was particularly hard because of how complex engineering
is. Trying to narrow down the subject among articles is nearly impossible due to how
broad the field really is. Engineering is a big industry, and one of the key things for its
success is the education put towards rising engineers. The unfortunate truth is that
“students become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly on test, get discouraged about
the courses, the curriculum, and themselves, and in some cases change to other curricula
or drop out of school” (Felder & Silverman 1988). Engineering is one of the most
difficult degrees to obtain due to its intensive courses, so picking the right education
methods is imperative in order to prevent a situation included in the previous sentence.
The main subject of these articles is that after one receives education in engineering, they
should be “proficient in the tools of their trade” (Bernhard 1997). Simply stating that
after an engineer’s education, they should feel experienced in the concepts and
technology used in that field. Through these articles, the authors propose methods of
teaching for engineers as well as state the uses of new technologies into the curriculum.
The article, “Challenges and Strategies for Electrical Engineering Education” is
basically what the title says. It is an outline of specific strategies and challenges for those
in the engineering profession, while explaining specific learning styles. Even though the
article suggests it is only for electrical engineers, its content reflects the whole
engineering profession entirely. In “Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering
Education”, Felder describes the different learning and teaching styles associated with the

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education, and differentiates their characteristics. These different learning and teaching
styles are to show how engineers learn and the methods for teaching engineering. The
article, “Infusion of Emerging Technologies and New Teaching Methods into The
Mechanical Engineering Curriculum at The City College of New York”, shows how new
technologies are being used for education in the curriculum of mechanical engineering.
The author of this article demonstrates the great role that new technology is providing in
the education of mechanical engineering.
The community of engineers focuses greatly on the education of future engineers.
The subject of these articles shows that engineers are concerned for the education of their
students to make sure that they receive a proper education. They emphasize the
importance of efficient teaching methods and the application of new technology.
Engineers pay special attention to one’s learning style in order to create a curriculum that
reflects the learning styles of their students and are seeking to create ways in order to
benefit their students.
Setting
These publications came from the City College of New York, the University of
New Hampshire, and North Carolina State University. Since of all these articles had
originated from universities, they all are concerning the same basic principles. Finding
them through Google and the UCF library, there were also many relating articles on those
sites about innovations, other teaching methods, and general facts about engineering.
Although from different locations, each article mainly focuses on how up and
coming engineers should be educated and the specific methods to do so. The differences

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with these articles are the times in which they were published. These are articles range
from the late 1980’s, to the late 1990’s, as well as the year 2011. Being spread out as far
as decades creates differences amongst these methods, especially for engineering. The
world of technology is ever growing, and new technology introduced to the field can
greatly change the aspects of the field itself. In terms of location the setting of each of
these articles are similar in the fact that they are about universities in the United States,
but their dates are completely different, and provide different information. This is not
necessarily a bad thing, however, as it allows for a different points of view on
engineering education and allows us to see what exactly has changed over the time
period.
The setting of these articles reveals that engineers are wide spread in their field.
Each article comes from varying schools across the country, while still expressing a
general opinion on education. Like other professional communities engineers are
everywhere trying to play their role in advancing our modern world. Even though these
articles are from different time periods, engineers are still focused on creating a better
world through research by shaping the education of the up and coming engineers.
Participants
The writers of these articles are all professors with prior experience in teaching.
They have all been there to observe what learning styles and methods are the most
beneficial to that of their students. One of these authors, Linda K. Silverman, is a
psychologist who thoroughly analyzed the learning styles of engineering students through
her article “Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education”. As a psychologist

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her analysis includes the different forms in which engineering students learn, which she
was able to observe through prior experience. Although she is not an engineering
professor, she provided learning techniques through her experience in psychology.
The other authors are both professors in engineering with Jennifer Bernhard, a
professor in electrical engineering and computer science, and FeridunDelale, a professor
in mechanical engineering. Each author also had several participants in writing these
articles that were also professors in engineering. As the same for all engineering
professors, both Bernhard and Delale have experience in engineering and know the ways
in order to become a successful engineer. Their experience allows for a good
representation of engineering teaching techniques and the use of new technologies, in
order to educate their students. In Bernhard’s article she recalls a past experience where
engineering students described the way they learned, and she took that melded it into her
way of teaching. Understanding how they learn and the strategies for their success could
only be understood by one who is knowledgeable and has past experience in the subject.
Any teacher can teach out of a book , but for students to learn what is needed for
their profession, they need a professor like these two who have been through the same
and fully understand their field. Their articles are written for professors in the education
of engineering as well as the students, in order for them to gain insight on education in
that particular field. The readers of this genre should be familiar with the field of
engineering in order to fully grasp the concepts discussed. The community shows that
education plays a large role within the community. These professors are all well
respected members of their community due to their extensive experience within the field.

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In order for effective methods in education of engineering students, the validity of an
author is based on their levels of knowledge and experience.
Features
These articles, basically all write in the same format. These authors use a
traditional essay format, including an intro, body, and conclusion. Each author uses their
professional experience for evidence to support their findings, which are usually
represented through a series of graphs or charts that display the information gathered.
Within each introduction, the author clearly addresses the main subjects of each body
paragraph. Each body paragraph includes new ways of teaching and expresses different
learning styles, while the conclusion summarizes the use of all of the learning styles and
tries to express a basic understanding of the best teaching method for engineering. They
give an understanding of exactly who engineers are and how they think as well as how
they learn.
In Bernhard’s article, she presents her introduction with her viewpoint on what
engineering education is and what should result from it. The main elements to her
viewpoint are that engineers should feel experienced after education and that the teaching
methods a professor uses should fit the needs of the students.Throughout her article she
expresses her teaching methods and the ways she engages her students. In her body
paragraphs she lays out what kind of people engineers are and then explains the
differences in teaching according to class year. Delale introduces with the importance on
the curriculum of engineering, stating that it is “engaged in a continuing effort to review
and upgrade its curriculum” (Delale et al 2011). After the introduction, Delale addresses

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the role of new technologies in engineering education and in what subjects those
technologies influence. One of the things that stand out in Delale’s article is how they use
pictures to demonstrate the uses of new technology in the education environment, but the
reason for this is that the new technology wouldn’t have been in use in the time period of
the other articles. Within Silverman and Felder’s article, they outline different learning
styles for students and describe specific ways in which those students learn in the
profession. They also use visual examples to explain and define the different learning
style, in order to make the information easier to understand for the reader, while the other
article sticks to the traditional essay format. At the end of each article, the authors added
in a list of references or works cited section. Each article clearly defines who wrote it and
where it came from, as to convey a sense of acknowledgement for their impacts on
education in engineering.
Through the features of these articles, engineers reveal that they are very to the
point. They express their main ideas through abstracts at the beginning of their papers,
showing the general point in writing their article. Using a common ground of writing,
engineers want to share their ideas with other engineers and professors in a way that all of
them will understand. This shows that the community places a huge role on the spread of
knowledge and experience.
Patterns
The genre features of these articles show that these research journals are intended
for all engineering professors and students, to show what the profession is and what they
will need to do in order to become successful as an engineer. When discussing what

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engineers are, the authors define them as abstract thinkers who need different means of
education. The articles are all written in an informative tone when presenting the
information and include past experience to support their ideas. They all come to the
general consensus that engineering education requires different methods of teaching, and
the techniques listed should be used by an instructor to “meet the needs of most or all of
the students in any class” (Silverman & Felder 1988). This reveals that they want their
students motivated about the education, and want to include all the resources
(technology) in the teaching.
Although these articles pertain to the same topic, they do present their information
in different ways. The articles by Bernhard and Felder/Silverman both explain styles of
learning and thinking with engineering students, while Delale’s article discusses more
about the applications of new technology for education. Most of the terminology in the
articles is easy to understand since they do not directly discuss the complex aspects of the
field, and if it isn’t the authors try to clearly identify what it means. Both Bernhard and
Felder/Silverman try to clearly define their groupings for thought and learning styles for
the reader in order to see the differences among them. Through these clear definitions, the
reader can easily identify whether or they are an auditory learner or whether they prefer
real-life experience in order to learn.
These articles make it evident that engineering is different from any other
profession, and stress the importance of their education since other means of education
would not be beneficial. The engineering community is unique because of the fact that
they deal with ways of abstract thinking and high level mathematical as well as scientific
concepts. Engineers require complex education due to the importance of the high level of

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math and sciences required by the profession. Simply this is the truth, and it is further
supported by the authors’ ideas on learning styles, ways of thinking, and the uses of new
technology used in the education of engineering. In order to make this possible an author
would have had to have prior real-life working as an engineer or someone who is
knowledgeable in the field of teaching it. The authors want the readers to understand
these things, but not be turned away from the profession because of its complexity. They
simply want the reader to understand what it takes to become an engineer and what that
education will mean for them.

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Works Cited:
Bernhard, J. (1997). ”Challenges and Strategies for Electrical Engineering Education”.
Presented at Frontiers in Education Conference. Available at
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=632708
Delale, F et al. (2011). "Infusion of Emerging Technologies and New Teaching Methods
into The Mechanical Engineering Curriculum at The City College of New York."
Advances in Engineering Education, 2.4, 14-50.
Felder, R, & Silverman L. (1988). “Learning And Teaching Styles In Engineering
Education”. Engr. Education, 78.7, 674-681.