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To address some of the perceived problems with the current system of undergraduate engineering education Engineering Students for the 21st Century plans to change our degree program from a knowledge-based paradigm (acquiring a set of concepts) to being development-based (emphasizing students' development). Changing our program to focus on student development will help us to create a more effective, engaged, and efficient curriculum.
- Effective because moving to a development-based program teaches students to use a broad range of knowledge in the context of solving engineering problems in-depth and explicitly teaches them the skills needed to do so.
- Engaged since students have the opportunity to explore the diversity of skills useful in engineering that are important to their personal goals, needs, and interests. A development-based program does not dictate what engineering is, but gives students the necessary experiences to make their own career choices.
- Efficient in maximizing both institutional and human resources. By emphasizing in-depth projects above broad coverage of engineering the program can focus resources, align the undergraduate degree with faculty research, and engage graduate students in the profession of teaching.
Making the transition to a development-based program will require that both the institution and faculty change. As Machiavelli wisely said, the most difficult thing a person can do is try to change an organization, government or society for everyone knows exactly what they have to lose but no-one can easily quantify what they will gain. In order to make the transition ES21C has focused on two overarching goals to guide the project:
Goal 1: Increase the depth of student learning by restructuring ten courses in the electrical engineering program using a developmental model.
The developmental model will define levels of learning, identify characteristics of students at each level, and adopt teaching techniques that move students to deeper levels of learning. Students will be taught to monitor and document their own development. This model will be implemented across the entire curriculum, increasing efficiency and engaging both faculty and students.
To succeed in transitioning to a development-based curriculum our department needs to redefine the role of faculty, leading to the second goal:
Goal 2: Engage both current and future faculty in integrating scholarship back into teaching.
This project will base reform on scholarship rather than service by building professional learning communities [7] and creating professional development opportunities [8, 9] for faculty. Graduate students will be recruited nationally, trained as future faculty, engaged in curriculum reform, integrate their research into undergraduate courses, and develop teaching portfolios. We seek to learn:
How does students' learning change when classes are taught by graduate students trained in using a developmental model, and does teaching positively impact graduate students' professional development?
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