Page 104 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11338.html

THE ENGINEERING EDUCATION COALITIONS PROGRAM 87

The Content Lens
Content addresses questions such as new topics for engineering cur-
ricula and in what order topics should be presented. Questions about
content can often be answered by textbooks. The EEC Program con-
tributed surprisingly little new content. EECs invested comparatively
little effort in adding topics to engineering curricula or in reordering
existing subject matter. This may seem surprising considering that new
technological areas (e.g., information technology, biotechnology,
nanotechnology, sustainable engineering, etc.) are continuously emerg-
ing. Various explanations might be offered for the comparatively small
investments in content.
First, engineering curricula have reached topical capacity. Thus,
adding new topics at this point would require eliminating other topics,
and reaching consensus on which topics are the most important is a
difficult and contentious process. Second, EECs were intended to ad-
dress questions associated with engineering education as a system; topi-
cal additions and/or deletions raise questions for individual disciplines,
rather than for engineering as a whole. Third, adding new topics may
not have appeared to be as pressing a challenge as increasing the number
of engineering graduates, raising retention rates for students already in
engineering, increasing the percentages of students from traditionally
underrepresented groups, such as white women and minorities, and
improving students’ capabilities in communications, teamwork, prob-
lem solving, ethics, engineering design, project management, and life-
long learning. Changes in content would not have addressed these needs.
Given that the results of the EEC program in terms of content were
comparatively small and given the preeminence attached to content by
people associated with engineering, some might conclude that the EEC
Program contributed little to engineering education. We hope that con-
clusion will be reversed when the program is looked at through the
other lenses.

The Expectations Lens

Each EEC first articulated expectations for graduates of engineer-
ing education programs, refined them to the point that assessment
methods could be formulated and implemented, and then shared their
expertise and experience associated with these processes nationwide.

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