Leadership Learning for Engineering 2015 CELT - Vol. VIII - Engineering education program description

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

Engineering educators have been encouraged to blend technical training with professional learning across curricular and co-curricular programming. This paper presents a multifaceted leadership learning initiative developed to infuse reflective, experiential learning into engineering education. The program is built by a multidisciplinary team and organizes leadership development across self, team, organization, and society. Learning experiences span elective courses, workshops, guest lectures, seminars, leadership groups, and panels, and early informal student feedback indicates meaningful personal growth and high value.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Program Development

Institutional context and funding

Institute structure and learning framework

Program components and early findings

Curricular and Co-curricular Leadership Learning for Engineering 2015 CELT Vol. VIII [celt. uwindsor.ca](celt. uwindsor.ca) [www.stlhe.ca](www.stlhe.ca) Students Doug Reeve1, Greg Evans1, Annie Simpson, Robin Sacks1, Estelle Oliva-Fisher, Cindy Rottmann, and Patricia Sheridan1 The Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering, 1 Also Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto In recent years engineering educators have been encouraged to blend technical and professional learning in their curricular and co-curricular programing (Engineers Canada, 2009; National Academy of Engineering [NAE], 2004). Our paper describes a multifaceted leadership learning program developed to achieve this goal by infusing reflective, experiential learning into an otherwise technically oriented discipline. The program was designed by a collaborative team of educators and researchers with backgrounds in engineering, education, psychology, and industry and offers a range of learning experiences using diverse pedagogical strategies. The content covers four realms of leadership corresponding to four levels of analysis: self, team, organization, and society. Learning experiences include elective academic courses, co-curricular workshop programs, guest lectures in core courses, seminars, department based leadership groups, and panel discussions. In this paper, we describe the program goals, curricular and co-curricular initiatives and early research findings in order to scaffold an emerging discussion about engineering leadership education in Canada. Informalfeedback from students who have participated in our program provide us with preliminary evidence that students are learning, that they value the learning opportunities afforded by our program and that our initiative is enabling significant personal growth. Introduction Engineinnoveavearseolunioiqnuslyo pmositanyionloedcal atond cgrleoabteal challenges (Downey et al., 2006; Engineers Canada, 2009; Katehi, 2005; Khattak, 2011; Reeve, 2010; Vest, 2005), yet few North American faculties of engineering provide students with the leadership learning opportunities required to do this work. Fortunately, recent calls for change by the National Academy of Engineering and Engineers Canada (Engineers Canada, 2009; NAE, 2004) have led a small, but growing number of engineering educators—mostly in the United States—to infuse leadership learning opportunities into engineering education (Bayless, 2013; Cox, Osman, & Adams, 2010; Croft, Winkelman, Boisvert, & Patten, 2013; Evans, Reeve, & Simpson, 2010; Graham, Crawley,& Mendelsohn, 2009; Ha, 2013; Hsiao, 2013b; Kerns, Miller, & Kerns, 2005; Khattak, 2011; Osagiede, Farmer Cox, & Ahn, 2013; Pitts, Klosterman, & McGonagle, 2013; Polito & Martinich, 2008; Schuhmann, 2010; Simpson, Evans, & Reeve, 2012) . The three most prominent foci of these programs are entrepreneurship and innovation (Hsiao, 2013a; Soundarajan, Ramnath, & Weide, 2013), personal and professional growth (Colcleugh & Reeve, 2013; McCuen, 1999; Reeve, Simpson, & Evans, 2010; Simpson, Evans, & Reeve, 2010), and global citizenship (Athreya et al., 2010; Ellis & Petersen, 2011; McMartin, 2013) . The first two typically involve skill building and industry partnerships while the third concentrates on international mobility and service learning projects in the global south. The initiative we discuss in this paper—The Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering at the University of Toronto (ILead)—addresses all three areas but focuses primarily on personal and professional growth. In this paper, we describe ILead’s program goals, curricular and cocurricular initiatives and early research findings in order to scaffold an emerging discussion about engineering leadership education in Canada. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Program Development In 2002, when we began to develop leadership programming

FAQs

What is the leadership learning program described in the paper designed to achieve?

It aims to blend technical and professional learning by infusing reflective, experiential leadership development into engineering education.

How does the program structure leadership development across learning realms?

It covers four realms of leadership—self, team, organization, and society—using learning activities mapped to these levels.

What kinds of curricular and co-curricular learning experiences are included?

The program includes elective academic courses, co-curricular workshops, guest lectures, seminars, department-based leadership groups, and panel discussions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa