School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering
Denny Davis
Improving Student Learning Through High Quality
Engineering Education

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Improving student learning through high quality engineering education has been a passion of Dr. Denny Davis for over a quarter century. In his vision for research universities, educators employ knowledge of teaching and learning along with research-based classroom practices to maximize student learning and success. Graduates are prepared for effective cross-disciplinary collaboration in solving complex societal problems while exhibiting creativity, cultural sensitivity, responsibility, and sound economic sense.

For a decade and a half, Dr. Davis has used National Science Foundation-funded research to improve engineering design education. He has incorporated social issues and communication in design courses across the curriculum. He has collaborated with industry and educators from across the nation to define the “profile of an engineer” that reflects attributes desired in engineering practitioners. He utilizes this “profile” to elevate and broaden student learning outcomes in courses and to guide development of curriculum materials and assessments for student achievement in engineering design.

His research also addresses recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in engineering. He has incorporated design activities into summer camps for pre-college female and minority students to show them practical applications of math and science and inspire them to study engineering. He has collaborated with education faculty to use videoconferencing technologies to incorporate engineering projects into distant middle school math classes to motivate student learning of mathematics.

Dr. Davis’ research has provided the engineering education community valuable resources for improving student learning of engineering design. He and numerous collaborators have published structured learning activities that simultaneously develop students’ teamwork, communication, and engineering design skills. Characteristically, their design classes embody increasingly complex design challenges interspersed with reflective assessments that analyze team performances and identify needs for improvement.

Dr. Davis holds that the Scholarship of Teaching is vital to the future of higher education. He declares that significant gains in classroom effectiveness can be achieved if an authentic emphasis is placed upon the Scholarship of Teaching. He posits that five key outcomes can be expected:

• Classrooms will become laboratories for improving student learning and success,
• Faculty conducting educational scholarship will be recognized equally with faculty conducting basic scientific research,
• The best teachers will be using “gateway” classes to solve student retention problems by application of scholarly educational research,
• Classrooms and the culture of learning in research universities will be collaborative and result in high levels of knowledge development, and
• Students in research universities will participate in educational research that stimulates the desire for learning and leads to research careers.

Dr. Davis uses “how students learn” and “knowing what students know” as the basis for improving education and student learning at research universities. He engages students in active learning with clear student learning outcomes to target achievement. He achieves professional performances from students by expecting them to take ownership for their learning and to accept significant learning challenges.

Contact Information
Denny C. Davis, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor
School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering

Washington State University
PO Box 642710
Pullman, WA 99164-2710

Telephone: 509-335-7993
E-mail: davis@wsu.edu