Search Results for
"Engineering education"

Adults have an active role in their own learning and training. Non formal and informal education is the cornerstone for a lifelong learning and career development. But related knowledge and skills, derived from several years of professional experience, personal development, or continuous vocational training, are hardly recognized in the formal education arena. Candidates for a diploma or qualification have to confront more or less referenced educational syllabus. For a better classification and promotion of individual knowledge and skills, and a more effective definition of associated competency proficiency levels, this paper investigates two approaches, supported with tools, so as to guide candidates in self-assessment and as such facilitate knowledge and skills validation by examination boards. As preliminary results, applied in two higher engineering qualification contexts at Master degree level, they show that: (i) when candidates directly rely on a formal syllabus in a top-down approach, they tend to limit the scope of their potentialities; (ii) thanks to reflexivity using a bottom-up approach, when candidates define from scratch their own syllabus, impacts on self-confidence and self-efficacy are much more significant. In the latter case, individuals better underpin their lifelong learning and training, and thus enhance quality of personal employment management and actions plans. © 2012 IEEE.

The new workplace is a key arena for learning in today's society. The spiraling demand for knowledge in the workplace has increased interest in learning, especially team learning. Team learning can be viewed from multiple perspectives, making it difficult for career and technical educators (CTEs) to know how to prepare students for a team-based work environment, especially one that includes virtual teams. In addition, emerging technology adds to the confusion about how to provide effective learning experiences that mirror what is occurring in the workplace. To prepare the workforce of tomorrow, CTE instructors can become facilitators of team learning by providing ample opportunity for learners to practice team skills in a low-risk learning environment. By providing the exposure and practice to team learning skills and technology tools, CTEs may help equip students with added skills in entering a global workplace. © 2013 by IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Regardless of overall economic conditions, Canada's youth employment rate has been consistently above that of the adult population. This trend is especially pronounced during times of economic crisis and for young people with low levels of formal education. In response, federal and provincial governments have introduced various schemes aimed at helping young people make the transition from school to post-school life. Most of these schemes are rooted in the perception that Canada is transforming into a knowledge economy and that at-risk students require extra support to equip themselves with the skills necessary to succeed in a knowledge-intensive labour market. At the same time, Canada is also experiencing shortages in certain labour market segments. Although some of these shortages concern highly skilled, professional occupations (e.g., in engineering or rural medicine), the most pressing need has been expressed for skilled labour in the trades. In addition to targeting at-risk youth, policy programs in all Canadian provinces have therefore also tried to increase the number of young people entering training and careers in the skilled trades. Finally, transition programs in Canada have also been concerned with issues of equity and fairness in access to higher education opportunities. Universities and colleges have therefore introduced programs and bursaries to attract, for instance, more working-class and Aboriginal students. In this chapter, I outline a number of different programs and schemes and their educational and labour market contexts. I argue that most of these transition schemes and programs are concerned with the development of human capital, but tend to neglect the creation of employment opportunities and the removal of barriers that restrict access to training, education, and employment opportunities. Furthermore, I argue that Canada's federal structure and largely decentralised policy environment lead to a lack of cohesion in the development and delivery of these programs, which limits the achievement of the stated goals. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights are reserved.

By analyzing domestic and oversees experiences in open-ended practical project-based instruction (OEPPBI), and in close combination to the deep meaning and characteristics of OEPPBI, we studied the OEPPBI mode under engineering environment. This mode relies on open-ended practical learning, and aims at improving the comprehensive qualities of the engineering talents. It encourages the students to participate in various research projects, scientific contests. The evaluation is based on scientific results and their promotions. © 2012 IEEE.

With the impending change in the higher education landscape within the UK there is a greater need for flexibility and innovation in the delivery of degree programmes. One flexible and innovative form of programme delivery is the work-based learning platform. Additional academic guidance is imperative for students undertaking a work-based learning programme due to the flexible nature of the programme. However in providing this academic guidance and support it places additional demands upon both tutor and student. Hence creative approaches which alleviate these demands are required to facilitate conversations between tutor and student as well as that from student to tutor. This paper will describe the current approaches used and how these demands are particularly important within the context of the personalised nature of work-based learning. The contrasting characteristics with classroom based teaching will be highlighted. In particular this will include the authenticity and those factors which relate to the strong ownership of the context by the student within this mode of learning. Copyright © 2012 September.

There is an implicit assumption in learning research that students learn more deeply in complex social and technological environments. Deep learning, in turn, is associated with higher degrees of students' self-efficacy and transfer of learning. The present meta-analysis tested this assumption. Based on social cognitive theory, results suggested positive population correlation estimates between post-training self-efficacy and transfer. Results also showed that effect sizes were higher in trainings with rather than without computer support, and higher in trainings without rather than with collaboration. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of complex social and computer-mediated learning environments and their practical significance for scaffolding technology-enhanced learning and interaction. © Springer-Verlag 2012.

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is widely applied in higher technological and vocational education and it has been proved to be a very effective way of teaching in many fields but with a number of difficulties remained unsolved. The aim of this study is to study the essence of PBL in order to understand what the difficulties of the PBL model in Taiwan can be and how different cultures can generate impacts on its application. Based on content analyses and interviews, this study is expected to fully resolve the nature of PBL and suggest the necessary steps of adjustment when applying the PBL. © 2012 IADIS.

There is a growing concern in the United States regarding the declining state of education and college enrollment for degrees in the areas of Science, Technology, engineering and Math (STEM). As part of a STEM Outreach program, The MITRE Corporation is partnering with educational foundation organizations to encourage school districts to seek out and take advantage of new prospects for students. These include opportunities to learn and apply STEM-related constructs and emerging technologies in a contextually relevant setting. This paper presents a model for integrating classroom and on the job activities to enhance the overall educational experience. A case study is presented highlighting MITRE's STEM program, including: increasing awareness of STEM education and career initiatives, building and maintaining partnerships with Colleges, High School STEM programs and other Community Educational Organizations, and providing internship opportunities. Copyright © 2008 by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics.

The importance of communication skills for engineering professionals is widely acknowledged. Research in the authors' group indicates that along with other cognitive and behavioral skills, employers of new engineering graduates place high value on communication skills. Here, the authors argue that becoming a professional engineer means entering in to a particular community of practice, one that communicates in a way that is specific to that community of practice. Engineers employ, consciously or sub-consciously, a variety of Vygotskyian psychological tools, and becoming an engineer necessitates new graduates understanding the nature and use of such tools within that community. Recent research in the authors' group suggests students that engage in experiential learning as part of a work-integrated learning program in engineering are rapidly enculturated into the community of practice that forms the engineering community. This, it appears, occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation in the community as these 'newcomers' work alongside practicing engineers in a form of cognitive apprenticeship. In doing so they gradually adopt mores of communication, eventually becoming legitimate, fully-participating members of the engineering community, and they developed a sense of belonging that is not easily achieved in conventional programs of study in higher education. © 2012, IGI Global.

E-learning as a new frontier in teaching and learning is transforming education to its scope, boundary and pedagogy. It offers exciting opportunities and provides access to global information. Its effort is a far reaching one, creating a learning atmosphere that defies the constraint of time and distance. Despite having the required technologies and infrastructures at their disposal, some notably institutions of higher learning have not be able to kick-start the online instructional course. This short coming resulted in unprecedented low Return on Investment, sustainability issue among others. The reason for this inadequacy is not limited to inappropriate handling of e-learning implementation and strategies on our campus but also include lack of leadership and initiative in this regard. The zeal to see the offering of on-line course in our faculty and University has prompted this study in looking for the best possible ways of improving e-learning practices. The best practices being proposed will be derived from our intuitions and personal experiences gathered in our educational studies using living theory methodology and our University as the basis. We believe the suggested best practices may speed up the introduction of on-line courses in our curriculum and provides opportunity for effective utilization of e-learning infrastructures and technologies. It will also enhance the provisioning of quality teaching and learning services to our students who for one reason or the other may not make it to campus everyday as demanded by traditional classroom education. © 2012 EDSIG.