ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the growing body of knowledge by a social realist exploration of curriculum as it plays out in the field of engineering education, signalling an approach that may also be productive when applied in other professional education contexts. A crucial contribution of this field, in the work of British sociologist Basil Bernstein, has been to provide detailed descriptions of the mechanisms whereby curriculum tends to operate to secure the interests of dominant groups in society. The traditional engineering curriculum involves an exclusive focus on basic science courses at the start of the programme, with the subsequent introduction of engineering science courses alongside more advanced science courses. Kirschner, Sweller and Clark use the label 'minimally guided approach' to describe problem-based learning together with related curriculum modes that have been fashionable across the twentieth century, particularly in school science, including inquiry learning, discovery learning and experiential learning.
