Distributed Constructionism in Engineering Tutorials: Requirements Engineering

Abstract

Constructionism - a process where knowledge is constructed through manipulation of realworld things - is a natural pedagogical approach for the engineering discipline, where 'making' is a fundamental aspect of professional practice. Yet, the pedagogy behind constructionism (see Papert 1980; Martinez & Stager 2012) is often overlooked when designing practical sessions, where the is a clear, convergent and often assessed outcome for any particular session. Distributed constructionism (a term borrowed from Reznick 1996) extends constructionism by putting the design and running of tutorials in the hands of students, similar to studentfacilitated learning (see Baker 2008; Smith & Browne 2013). I have built on these ideas by collaborating with honours students, who design hands-on engineering activities in courses I teach. In turn, I get students to design, develop and deliver tutorials incorporating these activities and the course theory in any given week.