Prof Deborah Blaine
Associate Professor Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering | Stellenbosch | South Africa
A holistic approach to engineering education
Doing more with less… a leading principle for engineering, let alone engineering education globally. Contemporary engineering educators are being challenged to graduate engineers who are technically proficient, expert analysts and problem-solvers, empathetic, self-aware, interculturally competent, can work in multidisciplinary, diverse teams, and excellent communicators (and that’s not the end of the list!). Through the Brent-Felder Webinar series, as a community of practice, we have been exploring ways in which to engage with this pedagogical challenge from a variety of perspectives, sharing practice from around the world. One of the most challenging aspects of designing engineering programmes for the future lies in navigating the very real constraints of many higher education environments: large classes and overworked lecturers; limited access to digital resources; limited opportunities for project-based learning that provide real-world engineering scenarios, especially in communities where opportunities for industry-academia collaboration is limited. While the past decades have seen the massification and democratisation of education, there is also a widening gap between highly and poorly resourced educational environments. For those of us who are teaching and facilitating learning experiences in constrained systems, meeting the current demands of engineering curricula can seem overwhelming and disheartening. However, by using models for holistic and integrated learning, it is possible to reframe our teaching and learning practice so that we can meet these demands within our constrained contexts. In this workshop, we will continue to use the community of practice, collaborative learning approach that has been prevalent in this workshop series.
http://www.sun.ac.za/afrikaans/faculty/eng/mechanical-mechatronic/Pages/Debby-Blaine-.aspx
|
