ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY Dr. V. THANIKACHALAM
Engineering Education
ACCREDITION BOARD OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY
Hold colleges accountable for engineering, scientific knowledge, synthesized information on Laws / Acts. Skills, and Professional values Ethics.
CHALLENGES TO ENGINEERS
Information: Proliferating Technological development: Multidisciplinary Markets: Globalized The Environment: Endangered Social Responsibility: Emerging Corporate Structures: Participatory Change: Rapid
COMPONENTS OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION
Engineering, and Scientific Knowledge -- Concepts in Engineering, Technology, Communication Laws / Acts. -- Problem-solving Skills -- Intellectual Skills in Engineering -- Rules related to planning and design -- Cognitive Strategies leading quality products and services
Knowledge is the data base of a professional engineer Traditional, and Multidisciplinary areas -- IT enabled engineers.
SKILLS
Managing and applying their knowledge such as computation, experimentation, analysis, synthesis / design, evaluation, communication, leadership, and team work. Skills are the tools used to manipulate the knowledge in order to meet a goal dictated or strongly influence by the attitudes Independent, interdependent and lifelong learning skills. Problem-solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking skills. Interpersonal and team work skills. Communication skills Self-assessment skills. Integrative and global thinking skills. Change management skills.
ATTITUDES ď Ž
Dictate the goals toward which their skills and engineering and scientific knowledge will be directed. -- Personal values, concerns, preferences and biases.
ACCREDITATION BOARD FOR ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (ABET)
Engineering criteria 2000. Application of knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering. Designing and conducting experiments as well as analysing and interpreting data. Designing a system, component, or process to meet desired needs. Functioning on multidisciplinary teams. Identifying formulating, and solving engineering problems. Cont……….
Cont……
Understanding of professional and ethical responsibility. Communicating effectively. Understanding the impact of engineering solutions in a global / societal context. A recognition of the need for and ability to engage in lifelong learning. A knowledge of contemporary issues. Using the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice.
CLASSIFICATION OF SKILLS
Independent learning, interdependent learning and lifelong learning skills. Shifting the emphasis. Providing a core set of science and engineering fundamentals Helping students integrate knowledge across and disciplines. Equipping them with lifelong learning skills. Integration of knowledge and the development of critical skills needed to make appropriate use of it.
INDEPENDENT LEARNING, INTERDEPENDENT, AND LIFELONG LEARNING SKILLS
Most students enter college as dependent learners, relying on their lecturers to present, organize and interpret knowledge. Shift many students undergo from being dependent learners to independent learners.
DUALIST PICTURE OF THE WORLD
All knowledge is known and obtainable from lecturers and texts. The students tasks are to absorb what they are told and then demonstrate having done so by repeating it back. Move students from the dependent stance to being independent learners. Students realize that all knowledge is not known and different points of view may come in shades of gray rather than being either black or white. Students task is to acquire knowledge from a variety of sources and subject it to their own critical evaluation.
Cont…….
DUALIST PICTURE OF THE WORLD
Students should be able to identify the pertinent factors and issues that affect a given situation. See the situation from a variety of perspectives, recognize what they need to know to resolve the situation. Acquire the pertinent knowledge they do not already possess. Apply their knowledge to achieve a successful resolution. They should further be able to elaborate their knowledge so that future recall and application will be easy. Evidence suggests that some but no means all students attain this level of development by the time they graduate.
LECTURER’S JOB
Students should be helped to go beyond independent learning to interdependent learning. Recognize that all knowledge and attitudes must be viewed in the context. Getting information from a variety of sources is more likely to lead to success than relying on narrow range of sources and view points, and that the peer group is a powerful learning resource.
WORKING WITH THE PEERS
Students routinely work with peers to identify resources. Step through the superabundance of available information to identify what is really important, Formulate learning objectives and criteria. Assess the extent to which they believe what they read, and learn from Communicate newly – acquired information to others.
BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH OTHERS ď Ž
ď Ž
Students learn to recognize their own learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses. Take advantages of the synergy that comes from people with a diversity of backgrounds and abilities working together toward a common goal.
PROBLEM SOLVING, CRITICAL THINKING AND CREATIVITY
Critical and creative thinking as core skills that are applied to problem solving. Problem solving as the primary skill with critical and creative thinking as components. General problem solving skills exist without subject context.
EFFECTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING ď Ž
Students should be able to draw upon a wide range of analytical, synthetic and evaluative thinking tools, problem-solving heuristics, and decision making approaches.
A PROBLEM TO SOLVE
Students equipped to identify the goal and put it in context Formulate a systematic plan of attack that incorporates a suitable blend of analysis, synthesis, evaluation and Problem-solving heuristics; Locate sources of information Identify main ideas Underlying assumptions and logical fallacies Evaluate the credibility of the identified sources Cont………
A PROBLEM TO SOLVE
Create numerous options and classify and prioritize them; Make appropriate observation and draw sound inferences from them Formulate and implement appropriate measurable criteria for making judgments Develop cogent argument in support of the validity or plausibility of a hypothesis or thesis Generate new questions or experiments to solve uncertainties Monitor their solution process continuously and revise it if necessary.
INTERPERSONAL / GROUP / TEAM SKILLS
Engineering is by its nature a cooperative enterprise Projects are executed by teams of people with different backgrounds, abilities, and responsibilities.
SKILLS ASSOCIATED WITH SUCCESSFUL TEAM WORK
Listening Understanding other’s view points Leading without dominating Delegating and accepting responsibility Dealing with the interpersonal conflicts. Conflicts that inevitability arise May be more vital to the success of a project than technical expertise.
ESSENCE OF TEAM WORK
Pre-requisite to functioning professionally and ethically Being aware of other’s needs and taking them into consideration when making decisions.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Cross disciplines, cultures, and languages Engineers will have to communicate clearly and persuasively Speaking skills Writing skills Drawing skills.
SELF-ASSESSMENT SKILLS
Whoever owns the assessment, owns the learning. Empower students to assess accurately the knowledge and skills the more effective and confident they will become as learners. Later in their professional life, they have to assess the performance of others. Assessment skills is an important component.
INTEGRATION OF DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE
Solve problems drawing on knowledge from their technical expertise. They have to deal with economics and safety engineering. They have to take decisions in the interdisciplinary work. The students require both generic problem solving skills and integrated and structured knowledge of the engineering curriculum.
MANAGING CHANGE
Growth of technology leads to rapid product obsolence. Growth of non-traditional job markets. More jobs in the international arena. Successful engineers will be those who can change when change is thrust upon them.
ATTITUDES AND VALUES
Engineering students should be inculcated with the values of willingness to participate. Concern for the preservation of the environment. Coequal commitment to quality and productivity. Involvement in-service to others. Engineering curricula to address attitudes and values systematically. Engineers should take decisions with feeling a need to take into account any of the social, ethical and moral consequences of those decisions, believing that those considerations are in some else’s purview.
OBSTACLES TO CHANGE
Cooperative (team based) learning. Inductive (discovery) learning. Open-ended questions. Multidisciplinary problems. Problem formulation exercises. Brainstorming. Trouble-shooting exercises.
COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES яБо
Demonstrated in thousands of empirical research studies.
DEPENDENCE ON THE UNIVERSITIES
Most of the colleges depend on the affiliating universities for curriculum revision and development. The process is NOT dynamic.
SECOND OBSTACLE
Most of the autonomous colleges are not taking bold steps to innovate. They do not invest on faculty development. They are not exposed to curriculum design processes. Student involvement is essentially limited to passive observation.
TEACHER-CENTERED CLASS
Digressions may occur. Making it difficult to stay with the syllabus. Discussion may wander into areas in which the professor is not all that comfortable.
LECTURERS ď Ž
Remaining in different uncooperative, or perhaps sullen in their refusal to get involved in the planned activities.
FACTORS SUPPORTING CHANGE
ď Ž
Government and industry have been exerting increasing pressure on universities and colleges to pay attention to quality of their undergraduate teaching programmes.
CRITICAL QUESTIONS
Revision in engineering curriculum and course structures. Implementation of alternative teaching methods and assessment of their effectiveness. Establishment of instructional development programs for faculty members and graduate students. Adoption of measures to raise the status of teaching in society and in institutional hiring, advancement, and reward policies.
ENGINEERING CURRICULA AND COURSES
Fundamentals vs Applications Stressing one of these Integrated courses Deductive presentation (Fundamentals to applications / expository teaching) Inductive presentation (Applications to fundamentals / discovery learning / problembased learning).
INTEGRATION OF CLASS MATERIAL ACROSS COURSES AND DISCIPLINES
Inculcating of thinking along interdisciplinary lines in their approach to problem solving. Presentation of cluster concepts.
DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL SKILLS
Core engineering courses Specialized courses Advanced courses Learner designed courses.
INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS
In-class activities Home work assignments Laboratory exercises Testing and grading policies and procedures. Effective processes at increasing knowledge and critical skills. Promoting and reinforcing positive professional attitudes.
APPROPRIATE BALANCE
Teacher-centered and student-centered instruction. Cooperative and individual learning. Active experimentation and reflective observation. Abstract concepts and concrete information. Routine drill and high-level thinking problem. Convergent (closed-ended) and divergent (open-ended) problems.
LEARNER FOCUS
Self-directed learners. Helping to overcome the resistance. Taking responsibility for their own learning. Overcoming the faculty reluctance to try something new in the classroom.
INSTRUCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Instructional development programmes General instructional systems technology Customized models for various engineering programmes Mandatory or optional Costing of instructional development programmes Sources of funds Cost effective programmes (Seminars, Workshops, Courses)
FACULTY HIRING, ADVANCEMENT AND REWARDS
Disciplinary researcher Industrial experience Development of textbooks Modernization of laboratory Development of innovative and effective teaching methods Research and validation of methods Leadership.
Thank you
Your questions please, vthani2025@yahoo.in