The Research Agenda for the New Discipline of Engineering Education
The Research Agenda for the New Discipline of Engineering Education
复制标题
工程教育新学科的研究议程
DOI：
10.1002/j.2168-9830.2006.tb00900.x
复制
发表时间：
2006
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Mari Velonaki
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
David Silvera Tawil;D. Rye;Mari Velonaki
全球工程企业的快速变化正在创造一个令人信服的理由，让我们重新思考我们应该如何培养下一代工程师[1-4]。根据这位2020年的工程师[5]，未来的毕业生将需要在以快速创新为动力、以惊人的技术突破速度为标志的新兴全球经济中，从多个角度协作贡献专业知识。不断恶化的城市基础设施、环境恶化，以及为80亿人提供住房、食物、水和医疗保健的需要，都将挑战工程师的分析技能和创造力。从美国的角度来看，美国年轻人对工程的兴趣持续下降，技术创新能力不断萎缩，工程研究基础设施陷入困境，这些都是预警信号，表明如果我们不采取行动，国家的繁荣和安全将岌岌可危。除非扭转当前的趋势，否则我们的领导力和创新能力注定会受到侵蚀[6-8]。要应对这些和未来的挑战，我们需要在招收和教育工科学生的方式上进行变革性的改变，而不是渐进的改进。来自整个工程企业的商界、学术界和政府领导人一再表示，对我们如何培养工程师进行系统研究，必须是我们从断断续续的教育改革周期过渡到教育系统持续、长期改进的道路1。工程教育研究必须成为推动变革的引擎，以提高学生和教师的技术流利性，提高对工程的兴趣和对工程职业社会影响的认识，增加工程学生群体的多样性，并增加美国对全球工程劳动力的贡献。这样的研究将提供原则、方法和教育实践，在此基础上不断建立引领当代工程实践并满足国家和世界需求的创新课程。最终，我们断言，对我们的教育系统采取严格的以研究为基础的方法，类似于在传统工程学科中进行和使用研究的方式，它将使我们在全球舞台上更具竞争力，并使我们能够开始应对国家和全球的重大挑战。工程教育研究讨论会(EERC)就是在考虑到这一变革[9]的情况下设计的。代表着70多名工程、科学和数学教育工作者和研究人员、学习科学家和实践者的合作努力，EERC参与者致力于解决工程教育的挑战和未来需求。这份报告提出了五个研究领域，这些领域将共同成为工程教育新学科的基础。我们设想了一个协同研究议程，通过塑造我们对未来工程师必须具备的内容(背景下的知识和技能)、如何学习上述内容以及如何评估内容学习的理解，将深刻增强美国培养未来工程师的能力。这项研究将反过来告诉我们应该如何教授这些内容，以及应该如何设计未来的学习环境。最后，了解这些基本领域将有助于我们吸引、吸引和留住多样化的人才队伍，成为一个更具包容性和更繁荣的世界工程师社区所需的人才队伍。
Rapid changes in the worldwide engineering enterprise are creating a compelling rationale for us to rethink how we should educate future generations of engineers [1–4]. According to The Engineer of 2020 [5], tomorrow’s graduate will need to collaboratively contribute expertise across multiple perspectives in an emerging global economy that is fueled by rapid innovation and marked by an astonishing pace of technological breakthroughs. Deteriorating urban infrastructures, environmental degradation, and the need to provide housing, food, water, and health care for eight billion people will challenge the analytical skills and creativity of engineers. From a U.S. perspective, a continuing decline in interest by American youths in engineering, a shrinking capacity for technological innovation, and an engineering research infrastructure in distress are early warning signs that the nation’s prosperity and security are at stake if we fail to take action. Our leadership and capacity for innovation are destined to erode unless current trends are reversed [6–8]. Meeting these and future challenges requires a transformational change rather than incremental improvements in how we recruit and educate engineering students. Business, academic, and government leaders from across the engineering enterprise have repeatedly remarked that systematic research of how we educate engineers must be the path by which we transition from episodic cycles of educational reforms and move to continuous, long-lasting improvements in our education system1. Research in engineering education must become the engine that drives change to improve the technical fluency of students and teachers, increase interest in engineering and awareness of the social impact of the engineering profession, increase diversity in the engineering student body, and increase the U.S. contribution to the global engineering workforce. Such research will provide the principles, methodologies, and educational practices upon which to continuously build innovative curricula that lead contemporary engineering practice and meet the needs of the nation and the world. Ultimately, we assert that a rigorous research-based approach to our educational system, similar to the way in which research is performed and used in the traditional engineering disciplines, it will allow us to be more competitive on the global stage and position us to begin addressing national and global grand challenges. The Engineering Education Research Colloquies (EERC) were designed with this transformational change in mind [9]. Representing a collaborative effort of more than 70 engineering, science, and mathematics educators and researchers, learning scientists, and practitioners, EERC participants worked to address the challenges and future needs of engineering education. This report presents five research areas that will collectively serve as the foundation for the new discipline of Engineering Education. We envision a synergistic research agenda that will profoundly enhance the U.S. capacity to educate future engineers by shaping our understanding of: what content (knowledge and skills in context) future engineers must possess; how said content is being learned; and how learning of the content should be assessed. This research in turn will inform how the content should be taught as well as how future leaning environments should be designed. Finally, understanding these fundamental areas will facilitate our ability to attract, engage and retain the diverse cadre of human talent needed to be a more inclusive and prosperous world community of engineers.