MUSSE

University of Melbourne academic Associate Professor Roger Hadgraft is an ideal person to be the Australian Learning and Teaching Council’s first National Discipline Scholar for Engineering and Technology.

His career in the field of engineering teaching and learning has spanned more than 20 years, focussing on the introduction of more problem-based learning into theoretical engineering courses.

“The whole idea is for students to see the application of theory,” he explained, whether the design is for a four-storey building, a section of highway or even a water treatment plant.

After working at Monash and then RMIT, Professor Hadgraft moved to the University of Melbourne in 2007 because he is “in the business of educational innovation”. The introduction of the Melbourne Model and the innovative educational challenges it posed were the attraction.

“There is a commitment here to have project-based learning integrated across a wide spread of subjects and disciplines – from the new first-year subjects through to the design and research projects in final year,” he explained.

Professor Hadgraft’s work as a National Discipline Scholar will involve hosting a two-day conference in February 2010 for 200 educators to explore the issues surrounding curriculum development, visiting other engineering schools and running workshops, and developing a best-practice manual for new lecturers and tutors of engineering.

To achieve this, Professor Hadgraft is going to be very busy – National Discipline Scholars are elected for a one year term only.

Thankfully, he has some help – he is sharing the role with the University of Queensland’s Professor Ian Cameron.

The contacts Professor Hadgraft has made throughout his career was another reason he was chosen as National Discipline Scholar. He was President of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education in 2008, (“which of course the Engineers called A² E² ” , he explained) and he has worked with some of Australia’s brightest minds and Engineering education thinkers.

In July, he is chairing the international Research in Engineering Education Symposium in Cairns.

As part of his new role, Professor Hadgraft is also producing a monograph of best practice for new teachers of Engineering.

“We’re now starting to draft the engineering education body of knowledge, so when a new academic starts at the University, a Dean can put this document into their hands and they can explore best practice for teaching engineering,” Professor Hadgraft explained.

This work will tie into another of his projects – the development of two graduate certificate subjects for Engineers who become tutors and lecturers, one about how to teach and one about how to design subjects and curricula.

As part of the small group of National Discipline Scholars (there are 4 in all), Roger spends three days every month in Sydney working with the other discipline scholars on the national curriculum forum for Feb 2010. This forum is the first of three forums to emerge from the ALTC Leading Change Symposium last year at which there were several University of Melbourne representatives.