Systemic Reform in Engineering Education at Penn State - Educating World Class Engineers

9973002Litzinger拟议的工作针对的是系统改革，这是培养“世界级”工程师所必需的，即能够在当今全球、具有环保意识和高度竞争的世界中运作。五个工程系将对其核心课程和教与学方法进行系统改革。这些改革计划的制定有以下共同目标：1.学生将应用和整合他们的知识和技能，并通过多种设计/基于项目的经验发展终身学习技能；2.学生将通过直接、多方面地参与行业和基于行业的项目，培养“以客户为导向”和更高水平的有意义学习的动机；3.学生将通过广泛使用协作和合作学习方法参与有意义的学习。尽管宾夕法尼亚州立大学和其他地方的个别课程已经成功地解决了这些目标，但它们以前没有以本提案所设想的系统方式实施；在工程教育中，终身学习技能的发展和评估也没有得到如此广泛的处理。这项拟议的工作完成后，将改革24门课程，每年影响超过1400名化学、土木工程、工业和机械工程以及工程力学的学生。作为培养“世界级工程师”的工程教育长期变革的延续，这些努力也将为未来的改革奠定基础。此外，将拟议工作的成果传播给更广泛的工程界，将有助于对五个不同部门的系统改革采取经过彻底评估的办法，以及发展终身学习技能的方法和评估工具。

9973002LitzingerThe proposed work addresses the systemic reform that is required to produce engineers who are "world-class," i. e., capable of operating in the global, environmentally conscious and highly competitive world of today. Five engineering departments will undertake systemic reforms of their core curricula and their approaches to teaching and learning. The plans for these reforms were created with the following common goals:1. Students will apply and integrate their knowledge and skills, and develop lifelong learningskills through multiple design/project-based experiences;2. Students will develop a "customer-orientation" and higher levels of motivation for meaningful learning through direct, multi-faceted involvement with industry and industry-based projects;3. Students will be engaged in meaningful learning through extensive use of collaborative and cooperative learning methods.While these goals have been addressed successfully in individual courses at Penn State and elsewhere, they have not previously been implemented in the systemic fashion envisioned in this proposal; nor have the development and assessment of lifelong learning skills been so extensively addressed in engineering education. When completed, the proposed work-will reform 24 courses and affect more than 1400 students each year in Chemical, Civil, Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, as well as Engineering Mechanics. As the continuation of a long-term transformation of engineering education to produce "World-Class Engineers," these efforts will also put into place the foundations upon which future reforms will be built. In addition, dissemination of results from the proposed work, to the wider engineering community, will contribute thoroughly assessed approaches to systemic reform in five different departments as well as methodologies and assessment tools for the development of lifelong learning skills.