Page 148 - 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

Preparation for the Professions
Program: Engineering Education

in the United States

Sheri Sheppard
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has
produced many studies of professional education, beginning with the
influential Flexner report on medical education in 1910. Building on
that tradition, the foundation initiated the Preparation for the Profes-
sions Program (PPP) in 1999 to address the perception that profes-
sional education has been plagued by a long-standing failure to connect
theory and practice in systematic, productive ways. In law schools, for
instance, theoretical academic learning is the coin of the realm; little
attention is paid to the “lawyering” skills and values that are essential in
the world of practice. In addition, professional preparation tends to be
insular, with no mechanism for learning from other fields to develop
strategies for tackling common challenges of professional preparation.
The goal of PPP is to raise issues and broaden the frame of reference for
leaders and practitioners in all fields of professional education. Phase I
of the program is focused on preparation for three professions—law, the
clergy, and engineering. Phase II, simultaneous studies of medical and
nursing education, is just being launched.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE PROGRAM

During Phase I of the program, the research team developed a
framework for addressing topics common to all fields, as well as the
particularities of each field. This structure is providing conceptual co-

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