Teaching Engineering

All you need to know about engineering education butwere afraid to ask

Peter J Goodhew

The School of Engineering’s Active Learning Lab at The University of Liverpool

Teaching Engineering

Peter Goodhew Page 1

Teaching Engineering

All you need to know about engineering education but were afraid to ask

Foreword

This book is aimed firmly at the practising teacher of engineering at undergraduate or taughtpostgraduate level. Physical scientists ought to find a lot of it relevant too. It is intended to bebased on clear research evidence and to explain as clearly as possible what the educationalterminology actually means for the lecturer. I recognise that the vast majority of universityteachers want to do a good job for their students but feel that they do not have the time (orsometimes the inclination) to study the literature on engineering education. However theyought to feel that the quality of their teaching should be as high as the quality of theirresearch, and this means being familiar with its background literature. This book is intendedto help. It offers critiques of the available learning and teaching techniques, bringing out themain advantages and disadvantages and explaining what might be involved in deployingeach of them successfully. I also assume that you know a lot more about the technicalcontent of your field of engineering than I do, and that you are both enthusiastic and fullybriefed on the importance of engineering to society. You will therefore find no extendedrationale for educating engineers and no attempt to define or specify particular curriculumcontent, which will differ among the engineering and science sub-disciplines.Although the main text is largely jargon-free, a number of important educational terms areexplained so that readers can, if they wish, follow the literature given in the references andbibliography.A book like this cannot always give answers, but it tries to ask good questions and to makeyou think about your teaching. If you find and adopt one new idea into your teaching, orquestion one conventional practice, then my effort in writing will have been repaid. I haveconsciously tried to present a wide range of views and to provoke thought and debate. Thegreatest evidence of success that I can hope for is that, provoked by something I wrote, youstart a debate in your common room or coffee bar.If you started teaching in a UK university since 2000 you will probably have taken a part-timequalification in teaching. You may therefore be familiar with many of the major educationalmovements and concepts, although you are unlikely to have been exposed to criticalcommentary on them from an engineering academic.I have taught engineering and science in UK universities for more than 40 years, have beenresponsible for the development of novel e-learning resources and was for many years theDirector of the UK Centre for Materials Education. I have also had, in parallel, a conventionalcareer in research in my technical discipline (electron microscopy) and have written half adozen books on this subject before attempting my first volume on education. I hope youenjoy it.

Teaching Engineering

Peter Goodhew Page 2

Contents

Page

Glossary

Chapter 1:The purpose and context of engineering education

a. To prepare students for research 08b. To prepare graduates for employment in engineering industry 08c. To prepare engineering/science/numerically literature citizens for society 09d. To provide an intellectually stimulating education 09e. The changing nature of university student generations 11f. The prior knowledge and experience of 21

Century students 12

Chapter 2:Some educational background

a. Some potential models 15b. Learning outcomes 20c. Background influences 21d. UNESCO 23e. CDIO and similar movements 23f. VaNTH and How People Learn 24g. Other sources to read 24

Chapter 3: The current state of teaching