Page 151 - 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

134 EDUCATING THE ENGINEER OF 2020

the United States and include a wide range of institutional types—a
small stand-alone school of engineering, a large public engineering
school, several university-based programs, a Catholic university, and a
school that serves many first-generation college students and transfer
students. Thus, striking similarities and important variations among the
schools are described. The study team visited these schools during the
first six months of 2002, interviewing more than 200 faculty and 200
students and administrators and observing 60 classes.
An important goal of the data analysis has been to develop a clear
picture of how administrators, faculty, and students understand the na-
ture of engineering practice and to identify a set of core ideas that are
consistent across these groups and in line with published analyses of the
essential features of the profession. The resulting conception of what an
engineer is and what an engineer does is laid out in the first chapter and
provides a “backbone” for the book. In subsequent chapters, curricula
and pedagogies are described in some detail and then examined with
reference to how well they contribute to preparation for the practice of
engineering. Draft chapters addressing the three main components of
the curriculum—analysis, laboratory, and design courses—are finished,
as are detailed outlines of the other chapters. A draft of the full manu-
script should be completed by the summer of 2005.

REFERENCE
Brown, J.S., A. Collins, and S.E. Newman. 1989. Cognitive apprenticeship: teaching the
crafts of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L.B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, Learning,
and Instruction: Essays in Honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 453-494). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.

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