Developing a Communication-Intensive Undergraduate Program in Science and Engineering

麻省理工学院要求美国国家科学基金会支持发展和扩展各种学科特定的教学计划，将交流教学和实践融入技术和科学本科课程。这项由麻省理工学院和行政管理部门发起的倡议的目标是建立一个本科技术课程，教育科学家和工程师成为在分析思维和解决问题方面精通沟通的人。这项课程改革的必要性是迫切的。今天的科学家和工程师承担着专业、管理和企业家的角色，在这些角色中，他们的职业成功取决于他们在各种情况下与广泛的受众进行有效沟通的能力。虽然理工科本科课程在教授学生关键的科学概念、解决一般问题的技能以及某一学科的核心知识和能力方面往往是成功的，但它们往往未能培养学生有效地写、说和表达信息的能力。为了发展这些能力，本科生需要在整个本科生涯中以及在技术和非技术课程中进行写作和说话。然而，科学和技术知识的持续爆炸给理工科部门带来了新的压力，要求他们增加本科课程的整体技术含量。为了教育我们的学生在这些限制条件下成为有效的沟通者，麻省理工学院已经开发了几个成功的试点项目，在不显著降低技术教学质量的情况下，将大量的写作和口语教学整合到技术课程中。事实上，这些课程提供了一些初步的证据，至少在某些学科中，写作和口语的综合练习可以提高学生对技术材料的理解。在接下来的两年里，麻省理工学院将在现有项目的基础上，在大一和主要项目中开发可扩展和有效的通信密集型技术课程。各院系和教员委员会也正在发展将交流教学纳入非课堂环境的机制，例如本科研究项目和暑期工作合作社。内部和外部评审小组将对项目的各个阶段进行评估，并就学生沟通技巧的提高、写作和口语练习对学生对技术内容的理解的影响、该指导将增加学生和教师工作量的额外时间以及其他相关问题对个别项目进行评估。麻省理工学院计划与其他教育机构分享我们开发的交流密集型课程，并将探索进一步合作开发的可能伙伴关系。我们希望麻省理工学院的努力将成为全国科学和工程专业沟通密集型本科课程的典范，通过教学生清晰有效地写作和说话，使他们成为富有成效的团队成员和领导者。

MIT requests NSF support to develop and expand a variety of discipline-specific instructional programs that integrate communication instruction and practice into technical and scientific undergraduate programs. The objective of this initiative by MIT's Faculty and Administration is to establish an undergraduate technical curriculum that educates scientists and engineers to become as proficient in communication as in analytical thinking and problem solving. The need for this curricular reform is compelling. Scientists and engineers today assume professional, managerial, and entrepreneurial roles, in which their professional success depends on their ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of audiences and within a variety of contexts. While undergraduate programs in science and engineering are often successful in teaching students key scientific concepts, general problem solving skills, and the knowledge and abilities central to a particular discipline, they have often failed to develop students' abilities to write, speak, and present information effectively. In order to develop these abilities, undergraduates need to write and speak throughout their undergraduate careers and in bodh technical and non-technical classes. However, the continuing explosion of scientific and technical knowledge has created new pressures on science and engineering departments to increase the overall technical content of their undergraduate programs. To educate our students as effective communicators widlin these constraints, MIT has developed several successful pilot programs that integrate substantial instruction in writing and speaking into technical classes without significandy reducing dhe quality of technical instruction. Indeed, these programs offer some preliminary evidence that, at least in some disciplines, integrated exercises in writing and speaking enhance student comprehension of technical material. During the next two years, MIT will build upon existing programs to develop scalable and effectiv e communication-intensive technical classes both within dhe freshman year and within major programs. Departments and faculty committees are also developing mechanisms to integrate communication instruction into non-classroom settings, such as undergraduate research projects and sumrner work cooperatives. Both internal and external review panels will evaluate all phases of this project and assess individual programs in terms of improvement of students' communication skills, the effect of writing and speaking exercises on student comprehension of technical content, the amount of additional time this instruction will add to both student and faculty workloads, and other related issues. MIT plans to share communication-intensive curricula we develop with other educational institutions, and will explore possible partnerships for further collaborative development. We hope that MlT's efforts will serve as a national model for communication-intensive undergraduate programs in science and engineering that will prepare students to be productive team members and leaders by teaching them to write and speak clearly and effectively.