Page 149 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
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132 EDUCATING THE ENGINEER OF 2020

herence for the Phase I studies and will be carried forward into Phase II.
One concept that is proving useful for comparative purposes, for ex-
ample, is that each field is characterized by one or more “signature
pedagogies,” ways of teaching that are familiar, even iconic, to anyone
with experience in the field. This concept is based on observations of a
ubiquitous pedagogical approach in legal education—so-called Socratic,
or case-dialogue, teaching—which has been dramatized in The Paper
Chase and other films and novels and is thus well known even to the lay
public.
The concept of a signature pedagogy has been appropriate to the
other fields as well. Each study reveals the nature of the signature
pedagogies in that field, suggests their power to encourage a particular
kind of learning, identifies their limitations—and suggests creative ap-
proaches to overcoming those limitations. Engineering education, for
example, is characterized by four very different signature pedagogies,
each of them consistent in a particular component of the curriculum
(engineering science or “analysis” courses, laboratory courses, design
courses, and ethics modules). The three types of courses are thus strik-
ingly different from each other and engender different types of learning.
The engineering study takes a close, critical look at each of the signature
pedagogies and then considers their relationship to professional roles.
A second lesson from the PPP studies is derived from theoretical
efforts to determine the benefits of the old idea of apprenticeship in
professional preparation. The idea of “cognitive apprenticeship” is an
important aspect of contemporary discussions of how learning occurs
(e.g., Brown et al., 1989). To cover the full range of crucial aspects
of professional education, we developed a concept of a three-fold
apprenticeship:

• Intellectual training for learning the academic knowledge
base and the capacity to think in ways important to the
profession. In engineering, this is generally considered the
main goal of analysis classes, in which the emphasis is on un-
derstanding fundamental concepts.
• A skill-based apprenticeship of practice, which is the focus
in engineering laboratory and design settings. In these situa-
tions, faculty act primarily as advisors, consultants, and coaches
to student teams working on projects.
• An apprenticeship in the mission, ethical standards, social

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