Research Through Design – A research paradigm that integrates engineering designers and engineering education researchers

Engineering education as currently practiced is effectively undertaking traditional educational research in an engineering context. While valuable for understanding and promoting change in engineering education, this approach calls into question why engineering education should be redefined as a unique research discipline. This research paper explores an emerging research paradigm – "Research Through Design" (RTD) – and suggests how it can be integrated into engineering education research. The aim of this paper is to provide a practical understanding of the history, objectives, and methods of RTD, and to assess its potential applicability both to advance engineering education research and to integrate the engineering education research community