Contributors Indigo Esmonde, University of Toronto; Krishna Madhavan, Purdue University; Wolff‐Michael Roth, University of Victoria; Dan L. Schwartz and Jessica Tsang, Stanford University; Estrid Sørensen, Humboldt University and Aarhus University; Iris Tabak, Ben Gurion University of the Negev Background The field of engineering education research has seen substantial growth in the last five years but it often lacks theoretical and empirical work on engineering learning that could be supplied by the learning sciences. In addition, the learning sciences have focused very little on engineering learning to date. Purpose This article summarizes prior work in the learning sciences and discusses one perspective—situative learning— in depth. Situativity refers to the central role of context, including the physical and social aspects of the environment, on learning. Furthermore, it emphasizes the socially and culturally negotiated nature of thought and action of persons in interaction. The aim of the article is to provide a foundation for future work on engineering learning and to suggest ways in which the learning sciences and engineering education research communities might work to their mutual benefit. Scope/Method The article begins with a brief discussion of recent developments in engineering education research. After an initial overview of the field of learning sciences, situative learning is discussed and three analytical aspects of the perspective are outlined: social and material context, activities and interactions, and participation and identity. Relevant expert commentaries are interspersed throughout the article. The article concludes with an exploration of the potential for contributions from the learning sciences to understanding engineering learning. Conclusion There are many areas of mutual benefit for engineering education and the learning sciences and many potential areas of collaborative research that can contribute not only to engineering learning but to the learning sciences.

Decline in engineering enrollment continues and renewed efforts are required to improve enrollment and diversity. Herein, we address this problem by conducting research to understand engineering students through the lens of identity theory. Implications of this effort are twofold: (1) to contribute to our basic understanding of engineering students' identities as well as what factors (experiences and settings) foster the formation and transformation of these identities during the undergraduate experience, and from these findings (2) to gain insight into improving recruitment and retention of engineering students, particularly students underrepresented in engineering. By conducting focus groups and interviews, our goal was to understand professional identity development in freshman engineering persisters and freshman engineering switchers. Initial findings suggest that exposure to meaningful engineering-related experiences and engineers are critical in developing an engineer identity. Our future efforts involve understanding the longitudinal nature of professional identity development (from freshman to senior years).Index Terms -freshman engineering students, identity theory, identity development, recruitment and retention. MOTIVATION AND RELEVANCE

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