The Foundation Coalition: an Agent in Changing Engineering Education

1 Jeff Froyd, Texas A&M University, Dwight Look College of Engineering, Zachry Engineering Center, 3128 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-3128, [email protected]. Abstract  The Foundation Coalition (FC), one of eight engineering coalitions funded by the National Science Foundation, was established as an agent of systemic renewal for the engineering educational community. Arizona State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, University of Alabama, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and University of Wisconsin are the partner institutions that have focused on major curricular restructuring in the first two years of the engineering curriculum with downstream changes motivated by this restructuring. Restructuring has been guided by seven ideas that are informed by a number of theories about learning and change (for example, social learning theory and constructivist learning theory). The seven ideas, referred to as FC core competencies, are (1) active/cooperative learning, (2) student teams in engineering, (3) curriculum integration, (4) technologyenabled learning, (5) increasing participation of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering, (6) individual and organizational change, and (7) continuous improvement through assessment, evaluation, and feedback. The fundamental proposition on which the FC was created is that engineering curricula restructured to be consonant with the core competencies would improve retention and graduation rates, especially for women and underrepresented minorities, and improve the quality of engineering graduates, as defined by the characteristics preferred by employers of these graduates. The paper presents data-based narratives that help explore the extent to which the proposition has been demonstrated.