International week – Spring 2010

April 2010 Faculty of Engineering

International week – Spring 2010

Introduction to this weeks theme – problem and project based learning Associate Professor Jørgen Bro Røn,

Educational consultant at the Faculty of Engineering.


History – Now and before

More than 100 years of engineering education (since 1905) Before 1997 the curriculum focus had a technical subject oriented view with some content of PBL.

1997 – first real approach towards implementing full scale PBL (in this connection, the term PBL covers both Problem Based Learning and Project Based Learning)

Each semester had a semester project to tie up the different technical subjects associated with the semester, but because the project load increased, the technical subjects taught had to decrease increased student autonomy/responsibility.

Odense Modellen

2003 – Odense ModellenThe fundamental pedagogical idea was, that the student is the center for all teaching/learning activities.

The main focus was on Competencies with the technical subjects applicable within the field of study Personal competencies – how to act in cooperation with others in the process of learning. How to learn – students individual learning styles


The Engineering Education Model of the University of Southern Denmark (DSMI)

As a result of the merger between IOT and SDU in 2006, a joint model DSMI was developed, based on Odense Modellen and incorporating the educational tradition/culture of both IOT and SDU.

DSMI applies to all engineering study programs

Through a project based and holistic approach, DSMI focuses on the development of the students’ academic, personal and learning competences

Students educated according to DSMI are characterized by being internationally orientated, creative, innovative and interdisciplinary as well as business oriented.



DSMI is based on a constructivistic philosophy which implies:

Activating teaching/learning

In dialogue with students

PBL (problem based learning)

PjBL (project based learning)

Working in teams



DSMI basically differentiates between two types of engineering competencies:

• Specific scientific and technical competencies• An essential element of the engineering profile. Depend of the field of engineering and are shown in the curricula’s syllabi.

• General engineering competencies (GEC)



• DSMI is developed with focus on an educational environment where the success of the student is linked to his/her own initiative and accountability.

• DSMI establishes a sphere of learning where the student will perceive him/herself as both an individual and a team player

• and enables him/her to be technically and creatively challenged, in close interaction with fellow students and teachers.



•A wide range of important GEC have been identified (regardless of the branch of study) and should characterise engineers who graduate from SDU.

• To independently learn new knowledge, including the ability to evaluate one’s own learning process and plan strategies for efficient learning

• To take a problem-oriented approach to one’s work, including the ability to formulate a problem and analyse a problem in a structured manner

• To work in a project-organised context, including the ability to plan, manage and evaluate projects

• To work in an interdisciplinary context, including to work with persons with a different scientific and/or cultural background



• To be innovative and creative in one’s way of thinking and to take solution-oriented approach to one’s work, including being open minded to new angles on problems and solutions

• To apply one’s scientific and technical knowledge• To document and communicate one’s knowledge and results, verbally and in

writing to different target groups• For scientific absorption• To work in teams• To evaluate the work of others• To participate in entrepreneurial activity



Subject

Student

Team Project

A

BC

13

2

The student will interact with the three elements.

•Subject: Study activities in delimited courses of study

•Project: Interdesciplinary and application-oriented problems in a project context

•Team: Group of fellow students with whom the student participates in a study-related context



The result of the learning process will heavily depend on the specific basis of the learning process.



If the basis consists of the subject’s/discipline’s theories, rules and principles, and the use of these for analysing standard situations, the result of the learning process will be limited to the acquisition of factual knowledge and skills that can be applied in similar situations. The subject could also be referred to as a craft.

This approach has the following strengths: the subject receives an identity; scientific and technical overview can be established; and specific methods and skills can be learned.

This approach has a crucial shortcoming, however: the subject risks becoming isolated, disconnected from the normally complex, multi-disciplinary and social sphere in which the knowledge and skills are applied.



If the basis of learning is comprised of specific problems that can lay the groundwork for generalisations and subsequent derivative cognition, the learning process may change the student’s ways of thinking and acting and acquiring knowledge.

One strength of problem-based learning is that it includes the potential for deeper scientific absorption; another is that it serves as the basis for learning many key aspects of general engineering competencies.



The EEM ensures that a balance is struck among the various theoretically different approaches to the learning process.

This conventional approach to building up scientific and technical competencies that are essential to an education will ensure that the student possesses basic, coherent scientific and technical knowledge.

The problem-oriented approach to topics representative of the education ensures that important scientific and technical fields are brought into an applied context and, the problem-oriented approach will ensure that the student develops general engineering competencies.



Interaction between Student and Subject (A)

Interaction between Student and Project (B)

Interaction between Student and Team (C)

Interaction between Subject and Project (1)

Interaction between Project and Team (2)

Interaction between Subject and Team (3)

Subject

Student

Team Project

A

BC

13

2




• The four first semesters are organised around themes supporting the semester’s competency targets and with a semester project of at least 10 ECTS points. (Reference)



Progression

A study (subject) progression is ensured with regard to subjects and semester themes


• A semester coordinator is appointed to each semester. And a planning group with participation of the semester coordinator, involved teachers and supervisors is constituted, responsible for coordinating the semester activities.

• The 5th semester project is an “Experts in Teams” project with students from at least two different engineering programmes. The project include entrepreneurship and/or innovation.



• The examination and evaluation form must be deliberately chosen to underpin the learning process wherever possible, and at the same time, the performance of the individual study activity must be clearly related to the examination and evaluation form to which it is associated.

• Ongoing evaluation will be used for giving students feedback/feedforward and motivation during the course of the semester, whereas final evaluations as examinations will be used for giving the students marks as a conclusion to the semester.



• The use of ongoing evaluation during the semester will maximise the students’ learning process under the given circumstances at the time in question.

• The ongoing evaluation will give the students the opportunity to steer their way through the course of study, to adapt their study efforts and to adjust their areas of focus.



• Thank you for your attention.• Workshop on Problem Based Learning tomorrow

• facilitated by Dr. Erik de Graaff, Associate Professor Delft University of Technology.


International week – Spring 2010

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