Page 65 - 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

48 EDUCATING THE ENGINEER OF 2020

workshops that have demonstrated success. The Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching is in the process of evaluating the
preparation of engineering faculty as one part of their Preparation for
the Professions Program (see paper by Sheppard, Sullivan, and Colby in
Appendix A; see also Davidson and Ambrose, 1994). In the study, in-
vestigators have identified three “signature pedagogies” in engineering
and will seek to determine “their power in fostering a particular kind of
learning, their limitations, and creative approaches to overcoming those
limitations.” However, Summit participants voiced the desire for a more
uniform approach to developing faculty skills in areas of curriculum
development, material development, and pedagogical skills.
The Higher Education Centers for Learning and Teaching may be-
gin to address that desire. Funded by NSF, these centers are engaged in
research to develop a better understanding of effective teaching and
learning in STEM fields. The centers are intended to provide a broader
education research base and to apply that research in order to provide
current and future faculty with the sorts of content knowledge and peda-
gogical skills that lead to improved student learning in STEM disci-
plines. The collaborative effort known as the Center for the Integration
of Research, Teaching, and Learning, located at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison (partnering with faculty members at Michigan
State University and Pennsylvania State University), seeks to have a
national impact by focusing on the roughly 100 research institutions
that supply the large majority of faculty to the nearly 4,000 institutions
16
of higher education with STEM programs. The Center for the
Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE)—a collaboration
among researchers at the Colorado School of Mines, Howard University,
University of Minnesota, Stanford University, and University of Wash-
ington (lead)—focuses on the advancement of scholarship in
engineering learning and teaching with a goal to inform the practice of
engineering teaching. The CAEE effort will also work to “strengthen
the research and leadership skills of the engineering faculty and gradu-
ate student community.” 17

16 See http://cirtl.wceruw.org/ourwork_overview.html.
17 See http://www.engr.washington.edu/caee/index.html.

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