Qualitative methodologies for dummies: engineers in investigation the quality of final year Engineering Research Project

Abstract

This paper discusses the methodology and methods used in an associate learning and teaching fellowship to study the perception, barriers and approaches of students in their final year engineering project, in particular, their literature review. There was a scenario that involved a change of methodologies in research ‘style’ for engineering education. As most of the research team members are engineers and their respective research experience is in engineering research and technology innovation, the original research methodologies adopted was not particularly suited for engineering education research. It was based on very quantitative approach used in science-based disciplines though questionnaires were to be used as one of the data collection method. A methodology change was made as the research team acknowledged that there will be likely deficiencies and difficulty in the research validity. This instigated a change to a very qualitative approach, involving a series of open-ended surveys, focus groups and intervention workshops. The change in methodology was inspired mostly by Bloom’s (1984) taxonomy and Biggs’s (1989) 3-P Model of Learning. Based on the preliminary analysis of the data collected, it suggest that the intervention workshops have a positive effect on the learning outcomes of the students but not necessarily in the final output in the form of the dissertation.