Adaptive performance: A promising concept for engineering education?

In this discussion chapter of the book, first the concept of adaptive expertise is reflected upon. It is argued that its skills- and task-based nature has particular strengths for the design of education and learning, such as its underpinned and structured nature of approaching complexity. But it also has some limitations or potential risks, such as an under-emphasis on affective processes, the balance and choice for certain tasks or the risk of relying on potentially limited expert views.

Second, the chapter discusses characteristics of adaptive expertise in practice and its implications for educational design. Such implications include designing for open and meaningful situations, encouraging learner agency and ownership, integration social, physical and technological contexts and stimulating formative assessment.

Third, the chapter concludes that adaptive expertise and engineering education might form a happy marriage given their focus on complexity, project- and problem or challenge-based approaches, and their balance between skills and knowledge.

The chapter ends with some suggestions for future research, such as on the nature, combination and balance of tasks needed in education and its positioning within the curriculum.