Action Research as a Proactive Research Method for Construction Engineering and Management

Construction engineering and management (CEM) involves multiple stakeholders, complex interest relationships, and conflicts. All stakeholders must comprehensively consider the interests relating to a project to make decisions. Appropriate multi-agent decision-making can effectively coordinate and integrate the needs or expectations of all stakeholders, which can reduce conflicts, improve the success probability of the project, maximize the overall returns on interest, and contribute to the project’s sustainability. Existing studies have begun to explore the associated theoretical framework and practical methods for multi-agent decision-making. However, early studies mainly focused on the conceptual theories of decision-making models and processes, such as stakeholder analysis, decision evaluation, and risk management. In recent years, increasing research has concerned the application of multi-agent decision-making in CEM. This paper is the first to use a comprehensive review approach to analyze multi-agent decision-making in CEM, providing an overall perspective. In this paper, 105 journal papers are identified and classified into four categories: (1) main concerns regarding multi-agent decision-making in CEM; (2) tools and methods of multi-agent decision-making in practice; (3) research tools and methods of multi-agent decision-making in CEM; (4) critical points on how to solve multi-agent decision-making problems. The findings of this study offer references for future trends in four regards, namely (1) knowledge management, (2) decision resilience, (3) the fusion of many techniques, and (4) technologies for future research.

Extended reality (XR) technologies are increasingly being used as a novel research instrument to facilitate scientific inquires in the construction engineering and management (CEM) domain. By allowing humans to interact with immersive environments in controlled and monitored experimental settings, XR technologies have opened new opportunities for researchers to conduct CEM research involving human participants or concerning human behavior. Yet, XR-enabled research, as an independent, rigorous methodology for the CEM domain, is still underexplored. This paper serves as an effort to build an organized knowledge base and workflow for using XR technologies in various CEM research areas and methodological contexts. The paper first investigates the status quo of XR-enabled CEM research, by identifying current research areas in the CEM domain where XR technologies are considered the preferred or recommended methodological solutions. A process model for XR-enabled research is then proposed, with actionable recommendations about how XR-enabled research should be planned, designed, implemented, analyzed, verified, and validated. This process model is demonstrated with two illustrative case studies. Last, the paper discusses the philosophical, methodological, and technological roots of the evolution of XR-enabled CEM research and describes our vision of more enabling, adoptable, and value-adding XR-enabled research in CEM in the near future.

The use of blockchain technology in construction engineering and management (CEM) is increasing, yet current presentations of blockchain-based data management processes (DMP) are considered too primitive to encourage the technology’s broader diffusion in CEM. This research aims to provide a set of guidelines for visualizing blockchain-based DMP in CEM. First, a conceptual model is proposed to guide the research design. Next, 49 cases published in scholarly papers are reviewed, revealing an increasing use of dashboards to visualize blockchain-based DMP. Then, four challenges for visualizing blockchain are identified, namely, data diversity, visualization tools, visualization mediums, and visualization domain. Finally, we present guidelines for visualizing blockchain in construction projects, which involve: (1) targeting the visualization domain, (2) planning the blockchain visualization, (3) choosing a visualization tool, (4) selecting a visualization medium, and (5) fine-tuning the visualization solution. This research encourages researchers to further develop visualization solutions to harness blockchain benefits in CEM.

Long-term Trends in Construction Engineering and Management Research in Korea

This pedagogical study aimed to demonstrate an updated Building Information Modelling (BIM) educational activity in CEM (i.e., construction engineering and management) students’ final semester project. It investigated students’ perceptions of BIM and the project. Student feedback provided insights for linking education to practice, for example, what caused differences between manual estimates and BIM-generated quantity take-off. Four different project deliverable options demonstrated how educational theories could be embedded in BIM education. The novelty of this study lies in two aspects: firstly, this pedagogical research views the CEM education at the curriculum level by linking earlier years’ core CEM courses into the final project work; secondly, by designing four different options of BIM-related deliverables, subgroup analyses test how different factors, such as teamwork verse individual work, and BIM application level, could affect students’ learning outcomes. The current study also led to more future explorations in research-informed teaching in the CEM curriculum.

This study proposes incorporating generative artificial intelligence large language models (LLMs) into the Master of Science (M.Sc.) curriculum on digitization in construction. The aim was to help students generate computer code to solve, automate, and streamline practical challenges in advanced construction engineering and management (CEM). To this end, a host of problem-based learning (PBL) individual assignments and collaborative team projects were developed, alongside a combination of flipped classroom models and blended learning lessons, in order to teach effective interactions with LLMs and mitigate concerns, such as bias and hallucination. The effective interaction with LLMs not only facilitated code generation, which would otherwise be complex without additional formal training, but also provided a platform for strengthening basic project management skills, such as departmentalization, work breakdown structuring, modularization, activity delegation, and defining key performance indicators. The effectiveness of this approach was quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated within two new modules, Digital Engineering and Construction and Digital Technologies in Field Information Modeling. These modules were offered over three semesters each as part of a new M.Sc. program in Technology and Management in Construction at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. It was observed that 86.4% of students fully completed the PBL projects, while the remaining 13.6% achieved over 50% completion across all six semesters. Furthermore, anonymous student surveys indicated a teaching quality index of 100% in five semesters and 96.4% in one semester. These preliminary results suggest that the proposed strategy can be used to effectively integrate LLMs to support students in code generation for open-ended projects in CEM. Further research was, however, found to be necessary to ensure the sustainable revision and redesign of the problems as LLM capabilities evolve.

The University of Washington’s Department of Construction Management is in the process of developing interdisciplinary research and experiential education in construction engineering and management (CEM) with the creation of the 28,000 ft2 Pacific Northwest Center for construction research and education (PNCCRE). In doing so, the department has identified challenges, limitations, and issues centered on bringing industry experience into the classroom and bringing researchers together from diverse disciplines from across the university. The University of Washington envisions the PNCCRE as a place where learners will experience CEM theory and skills firsthand in an interdisciplinary research environment that will foster innovation. This paper focuses on how the Department of Construction Management at the University of Washington is reenvisioning its research and education activities to take advantage of the new PNCCRE facility. In the education front, this paper introduces “the experience learning model,” a...

The rapid growth of construction megaprojects worldwide has triggered a growing number of papers published in this area in the past two decades, suggesting that construction megaproject management has become an emerging area in the field of construction engineering and management (CEM). This study aims to investigate the status and the trends in megaproject research by conducting a structured literature review. A total of 85 relevant articles identified from eight peer-reviewed CEM journals between 2000 and 2010 were analyzed based on the number of articles published annually, institutional and regional contributions, citations, and categorization of research interests and methodologies. Analysis results indicated that developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, have enjoyed significant advantages in megaproject research because of their greater experience, while megaproject research in developing countries, such as Russia, India, Turkey, and Vietnam, remains weak or lacking. These results also revealed that many theory-based findings have been reported in five subareas; namely, construction and site management, cost and schedule management, risk analysis and management, innovation and utilization of information technology, and leadership and professional development. The subareas of organization and stakeholder management, project planning and procurement, and project monitoring and control remain to be promising domains for future research, particularly in developing countries which have yet to develop a research tradition. Incorporating the complexity theory and institutional theory as the theoretical foundation in these subareas can develop megaproject research further through strengthened global collaboration in the future.

Action research is fulfilling, frustrating, messy, confusing, and exciting--just like real life in fact. Nod Miller Action research is a powerful tool for continuing professional education. It assumes that people learn best when they work together and are focused on real problems that impact their work or community Reaching into the uncertain world of practice, action research engages the practitioner on a personal level and promises the opportunity to solve persistent problems. This article provides a brief description of action research, shares examples from the field of adult literacy education and suggests implications for the practice of continuing professional education. What Is Action Research? Over the years, action research has expanded to include a broad array of action inquiry technologies, making it difficult to provide a simple definition. In general, action research is an intentional, systematic method of inquiry used by a group of practitioner-researchers who reflect and act on the real-life problems encountered in their own practice. Often the research is conducted in partnership with academic researchers or professional development staff that help facilitate the process. This reciprocal process, in which practice and research inform each other, leads to new knowledge and increasingly effective action. Action research possesses a unique set of characteristics that make it suitable for continuing professional education, including control, collaboration and context. Practitioners-as-researchers control the research process and are responsible for the construction of new knowledge. Collaboration is central to the action research process. Researchers and practitioners collaborate as co-researchers, with each contributing expertise from their own area. Context is the final characteristic that sets action research apart from other types of research. Action research focuses on problems that occur within the context of everyday life. An Example From the Field The Center for Literacy Studies located at the University of Tennessee has used action research methods for professional development since its inception in 1988. As a part of its mission to bridge theory and practice, the center conducts professional development for most of the adult literacy programs in Tennessee. For the past 14 years, the center's staff members have conducted many action research projects focusing on a wide variety of subjects. As a result of our combined experience, we have developed a series of steps that often frame the action research we conduct. * Identify a topic. Topics are generally very broad and may come from a formal needs assessment, informal conversations with practitioners or comments from committees. * Recruit practitioner-researchers. Research groups may have as many as 20 participants, and all participants are generally volunteers. * Review the action research process and invite participants to contribute their insights to the upcoming process. The group might establish communication ground rules, expectations for one another and structures for their future meetings. * Select a problem or raise a question. As participants reflect on their practice and share experiences, they begin to ask questions, describe problems and share concerns. These become the focus of an action research project. Throughout the research, project members continue to reflect on and refine their original questions. * Collect and analyze information. Practitioner-researchers collect information that will lead to an understanding of the problem. Researchers use many common data collection methods such as surveys, interviews and observations; they may ask experts, research the literature, poll peers and examine records. The information collected is dictated by the problem to be solved. Collectively analyzing the information provided by different group members often stimulates people to reframe the problem, seeing it in completely new ways. …

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the value of interdisciplinary learning specifically in the architecture (ARCH), building construction (BC) and construction management and engineering (CEM) disciplines within the USA’s higher education system. The study attempts to expand the existing literature on integrated design and construction education and offer an alternative model for academic students’ collaboration when restructuring curriculums is not possible in the short term. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a qualitative research methodology, which involved designing a structured learning experiment, then followed it with collecting the “lived experience” of 31 participants from three majors according to the institution’s institution review board (IRB) office’s guidelines. The author hypothesized that students from different, but related disciplines working on a real-life project, would better understand the value of each other’s knowledge brought to the teamwork before graduation. The data were analyzed and compared to existing literature on integrated project delivery, and collaborative learning models. Data collection (surveys) was approved by the higher education’s IRB No. 13-021. Findings Despite the already-existing curriculum obstacles, the majority of students were very pleased with this collaborative experiment. The results confirmed many of the expectations about how students viewed each other’s discipline. The preconceived notions were dissipated at the end of the study, and students expressed more appreciation for each other’s field and expressed interest in learning more about the thought processes of other disciplines. Research limitations/implications Typical conflicting academic schedules were the greatest obstacle in this experiment. Architecture students often devote majority of their time to design studios and therefore are unable to fully engage in an integrated capstone project like this one as extracurricular. Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical implications It is possible to develop a successful collaborative experience in the architecture, engineering and construction higher education system without major restructuring of the curriculums. The impact on students’ learning experience is greater than the existing separated education model. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to study how integrated design and construction education occurs without creating new dedicated programs or coursework.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a conceptual framework for work-applied learning (WAL) that fosters the development of managers and other professionals as lifelong learners and practitioner researchers – through reflective practice, action research, action learning and action leadership, for positive organisational change.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical framework is designed from a holistic, affective-socio-cognitive approach to learning, teaching, research and development. It is based on a phenomenological research paradigm and informed by aspects of various theories, including experiential learning theory, strengths-based theory, grounded theory and critical theory/realism.FindingsBased on classical and recent literature and the authors’ extensive experience, the WAL model presented here is an effective and practical approach to management education, research and development. It is useful for present and future requirements of business, industry, government and society at large in this twenty-first century, and in pursuit of a world of equality, social justice, sustainable development and quality of life for all. This is because of the nature of the research paradigm, particularly its collaborative and emancipatory processes.Originality/valueThis paper provides a theoretical, pedagogical and methodological rationalisation for WAL. This model is particularly useful for developing individual, team and organisational learning and for cultivating managers – or professional learners generally – as practitioner researchers. These researchers may act as role models of collaborative action leadership in their organisations with a cascading effect. This paper therefore advances an incipient literature on practitioner researchers as action leaders.

Gathering knowledge from expert practitioners is a hallmark of construction engineering and management research. However, the knowledge gathered is dependent on the knowledge of the people we talk to. Accordingly, this paper used a content analysis of 12 months of recent technical articles and case study publications in the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management to explore characteristics of research respondents that authors publishing in this journal feel are important to document. Authors report some subset of research respondents' job type or role, years of experience, subject matter expertise, geography or nationality, organization and sector details, project type, professional qualifications, sex, race and ethnicity, ability, and language. Accordingly, this paper recommends that researchers should report at least these categories, and that researchers also should discuss research limitations that may result from the types of people they collect knowledge from. This change will make visible voices that are dominant or underrepresented in construction engineering and management research. In addition, by eliminating an otherwise unstated limitation, this change will result in improved construction engineering and management science.

Many studies on additional language (L+) motivation tend to prioritise large-scale and quantitative analyses, eschewing more valuable, nuanced, and emic insights offered by smaller-scale practitioner research. In the current chapter, we endeavour to show that action research (AR) would seem to be a particularly useful method for researching the multifaceted and deeply contextual phenomenon of L+ motivation. The chapter provides a case study of small-scale AR aimed at exploring and developing the L+ motivational self-images of learners. Given the more than ten years since publication of the research, we take a retrospective and critical look back at what lessons the study might offer. In particular, we hope to illustrate why AR is an appropriate method for pursuing not only more contextualised understandings of motivation in the language classroom, but also for more ethically including research participants. We argue that the act of conducting AR can itself become a motivating activity, playing a role in professional development and making teaching more rewarding and sustainable. We additionally use the focal study as a springboard to frame suggestions for future research centring on learner and teacher motivation, as well as teacher-student motivational synergy. Finally, the chapter proffers a selection of key readings modelling the use of AR and practitioner research in the study of L+ motivation in tandem with situated issues in its conduct.

150IN - The European Perspective of Academic Research: the Way to Move Forwards

This paper advocates for the use of Action Research (AR) approaches in the designing of Information Systems (IS). Following a brief overview of the history of AR as a research methodology and it's use in IS research a framework for describing the AR process is developed. This framework is then used to describe the AR process involved in the design and development of a paper based and orally communicated child health IS. A common criticism of AR in IS design is the focus on the output of the design and the lack of rigour in the description of AR projects. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on the process of the design and development of the IS in the case study, but also contributes to AR by outlining a number of concerns which should be addressed by the IS researcher if AR is to viewed as rigourous. The concerns which need to be addressed are the need: to make explicit the epistemology of the researcher(s) or practitioner(s) in any AR project; to adopt a participatory AR and longitudinal approach to avoid the conflict of 'serving two masters'; to develop networks of action, and; to develop and disseminate generalisations and learnings from the research.