This chapter focuses on the practice knowledge needed by faculty for effective instructional design in agricultural and biosystems engineering degree programmes. Task analysis, a key component of instructional design, requires that educators have sufficient knowledge of competent performance to design education experiences that enable students to appropriate the knowledge and skills they will need for future practice. Because task knowledge is largely implicit, the contemporary practice of defining education outcomes by written statements of competence (or competencies) relies on educators having relevant practice knowledge. However, few if any contemporary engineering educators have extensive first-hand knowledge of engineering practice. This weakness contributes to a significant education-practice gap. We draw on engineering practice research from related disciplines and personal experience to provide guidance for educators on the tasks that confront agricultural engineers in practice. We argue that this chapter can help educators provide students with an improved understanding of the contexts in which they will draw on knowledge developed in university classrooms. Improved contextual understanding by students may help overcome some of the engineering performance weaknesses we observe today. We also advocate for detailed research studies of agricultural engineering practice to improve educators’ contextual knowledge. © 2024 CRC Press.
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