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Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11338.html

The Engineering Education
Coalitions Program

Jeffrey Froyd
Texas A&M University

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The National Science Foundation (NSF) supported six engineering-
education coalitions (EECs) with the goal of catalyzing systemic reform
in engineering education (i.e., changes throughout the system, espe-
cially among faculty members, the most important component of the
system). The most productive innovations intentionally or unintention-
ally provoked faculty members into reflecting on and modifying their
ideas about learning and teaching. For example, faculty members who
participated in interdisciplinary, integrated curricular activities were
involved in mutually supportive, thoughtful discussions with their peers
about learning, assessment, and teaching. Another project involved the
construction of multidisciplinary design projects that exposed faculty
members to multiple disciplinary perspectives on the engineering de-
sign process. Faculty members also participated in workshops where
they were encouraged to consider and apply pedagogical options and
alternative learning environments (e.g., active/cooperative learning,
problem-based learning, etc.). In another exercise, faculty members were
involved in the development of instruments and methodologies to as-
sess students’ conceptual understanding of engineering science. All of
these activities encouraged faculty members to reflect and reevaluate
their approaches to learning and teaching.

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