Page 43 - 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

26 EDUCATING THE ENGINEER OF 2020

The growing body of research about how students learn can serve as
a guide and check at each stage of the work of transforming the under-
graduate learning environment. Past attempts toward reforming engi-
neering education—whether in individual courses or programs or on
individual campuses—have been informed primarily by the opinions
and experiences of those leading these efforts. What “works” has been
intuitively felt, rather than based on a body of carefully gathered data
that provide evidence of which approaches work for which students in
which learning environments. Without such data, engineers, and their
colleagues in the scientific community, have found it difficult to evalu-
ate claims, for example, about the effectiveness of emerging pedagogies
or the impact of information technologies on strengthening student
learning. Unlike the technical community, wherein data-driven results
from one lab have widespread impact on the work of peers, many edu-
cational reformers have not incorporated research on learning into their
work.
The publication of How People Learn by the National Research
Council (NRC, 1999) was a seminal event in the educational commu-
nity. It outlined clearly the advances in understanding learning theory
achieved by researchers in the learning sciences. Engineering educators
should be guided by these findings in order to design and conduct edu-
cational research to address critical issues related to broadening partici-
pation, improving retention of majors, creating courses for non-majors,
and designing an alternative engineering degree for those students
interested in careers and public service opportunities outside traditional
engineering employment. By focusing on research on learning, we will
be able to understand:

• how to serve students with different learning styles;
• why specific approaches and pedagogies work, for example, how
research as undergraduates serves learning goals such as per-
sonal development, knowledge synthesis, development of skills
such as data collection and interpretation, design and hypoth-
esizing, information literacy/computer literacy, and teamwork;
• how to help students clarify, refine, and confirm their career
goals and enhance their preparation for career/graduate school,
if appropriate;
• how to help them become responsible lifelong learners;
• how information technology can support student learning; and

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