Search Results for
"Engineering education"

This paper describes a research process that intends to develop a strategy to support initial programming learning. It is inspired in the theory of Matthew Lipman, as it was conceived through the redefinition of the concept of Learning Communities, to assist the students to maximize their learning through the conscientious evaluation of their level of self-efficacy, while they develop a better behavior to study programming. We present the results of the preliminary tests made to the proposed strategy, and the changes in the strategy that result from those results. © IEEE.

Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to enhance the educational experience and retention of college students, especially those from underrepresented populations. However, many challenges still exist relative to building community among students navigating large institutions. We developed a novel course called Entering Research that creates a learning community to support beginning undergraduate researchers and is designed to parallel the Entering Mentoring course for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty serving as mentors of undergraduate researchers. The course serves as a model that can be easily adapted for use across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines using a readily avail- able facilitator's manual. Course evaluations and rigorous assessment show that the Entering Research course helps students in many ways, including finding a mentor, understanding their place in a research community, and connecting their research to their course work in the biological and physical sciences. Students in the course reported statistically significant gains in their skills, knowledge, and confidence as researchers compared with a control group of stu- dents, who also were engaged in undergraduate research but not enrolled in this course. In addition, the faculty and staff members who served as facilitators of the Entering Research course described their experience as rewarding and one they would recommend to their colleagues.

In Portugal, like in other European countries, people with strong professional competencies are encouraged to obtain higher education, no matter their age or their social condition. With their strong professional background and some theoretical aspects linked to scientific and technological domains, they become more helpful for the companies and for the society they belong. Considering these facts, the Portuguese Government developed specific legislation to attract new students for the technological higher education system. This legislation, intends to attract students older than 23, and also aims the improvement of technological education after the secondary school level. Pursuing this goal the Technological Specialization Courses (TSC) were created. The TSC are post-secondary, non superior training courses that will lead the students to obtain level 4 of professional training, according the 85/368/CEE decision of the European Union Council, published on the European Communities official journal. The TSC also allow people from different professional backgrounds to get technological training. The best students are allowed to access higher education in technological domains (basically in engineering fields) and/or to the job market relied with the country's technological industries. Before the beginning of a TSC, the students are submitted to technological tests to determine their profile, which will be taken into account on the initial training, before the starting of the TSC. In this paper, the success of TSC courses in Portuguese context is demonstrated, and the implementation of a successful partnership between University of Minho and the Technological Association for the Professional education of Beira Interior (AFTEBI) is shown. The illustration of the successful partnership is done by presenting a case study of a TSC in Industrial Maintenance where the best students can pursue their studies in University of Minho, in the Mechanical engineering Department in order to obtain a Mechanical engineering Degree. The main role of UMinho (as Superior education Institution) at different levels of this post-secondary (non superior) education is also discussed and highlighted. © 2010 IEEE.

This paper presents an educational methodology of cooperative project-based learning. This methodology emerges in the final years of the undergraduate programme of the Technical University of Madrid. The paper focuses on the evolution of this experience up to its insertion in the European Higher education Area (EHEA), incorporating the project management competences of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) and broadening its scope to an entire educational strategy for undergraduate and graduate programmes. The results show how the methodology provides three main advantages: (1) it facilitates training in technical, personal, and contextual competences; (2) real problems in the professional sphere are dealt with; and (3) collaborative learning is facilitated through the integration of teaching and research. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.