Rethinking Engineering Curriculum: Engaging Multiple Perspectives

In this talk, Jenni Case draws on nearly three decades of engineering education research and development work to offer an expansive view of perspectives on the engineering curriculum. The first part, drawing on her sociologically-informed research as well as a significant engineering curriculum reform project at the University of Cape Town, formulates a set of axioms for thinking about the concept of curriculum. Building on this base she then draws on selected current empirical evidence to offers insights on the curriculum from the perspectives of students, employers, society and faculty. The talk closes with a set of challenging questions for future thinking around what the engineering curriculum could look like.

Dr. Jennifer Case is Professor and Head of the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech in the USA. Prior to her appointment in this post she was a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town, where she retains an honorary appointment.

She completed postgraduate studies in the UK, Australia and South Africa. Her research on student learning in engineering education, curriculum reform, and comparative higher education has been widely published and well cited, with over 60 peer-reviewed journal publications and two monographs. She is a joint editor-in-chief for the top international journal Higher Education.

She spent 21 years at the University of Cape Town (UCT), teaching in its undergraduate program in Chemical Engineering, as well as leading in program administration and curriculum reform. She was a founder member and then Director for the Centre for Research in Engineering Education at the University of Cape Town. She was the founding president of the South African Society for Engineering Education (SASEE).

With more than two decades of undergraduate teaching and curriculum reform work, she is a well-regarded researcher in engineering education and higher education. Her work especially on the student experience of learning as well as on topics around teaching and curriculum, has been widely published. She was a founding member of the Centre for Engineering Education (CREE) and served twice as its Director, as well as being the founding president of the South African Society for Engineering Education (SASEE). She is a joint editor-in-chief for the international journal Higher Education.