Developing CDIO practitioners: A systematic approach to standard 10

CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) is a widely used framework designed to educate the next generation of engineers. CDIO adoption is supported and assessed by 12 standards. CDIO Standard 10: Enhancement of Faculty Teaching Competence remains one of the lowest reported standard compliances. The following paper proposes a systematic approach to standard 10 compliance based on the premise that current staffing models across many western universities rely heavily on postgraduate students and that these students typically have no previous formal education related to these teaching responsibilities. Based on the large contribution of these students, and their lack of relevant previous educational professional development opportunities, the development of this cohort is presented as the most logical starting point when working towards standard 10 compliance. However, this poses significant challenges for Engineering faculties that often do not have the expertise required to design such an advanced educational structure. This is compounded by the challenging timetables of postgraduate students who typically must also satisfy credit requirements in the early stages of their postgraduate studies. In order to meet these challenges a systematic approach to evidence-based pedagogical strategy selection is presented in the context of a model that adapts to context and settings which vary greatly across various STEM education environments. In addition, the overall outcome of this system would see the development of a professional development structure that could be linked to credits and by extension be formally adopted into a postgraduate student’s program of study. This formalization would increase legitimacy, provide a recognized professional opportunity and as a consequence would be net neutral for postgraduate students workload