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The Future of Engineering Education: Part 2. Teaching Methods that Work, by R. M. Felder, D. R. Woods, J. E. Stice, and A. Rugarcia, Chemical Engineering Education, Winter 2000, pp. 26-39. (The paper in its entirety is available on the Internet at http://www2.ncsu.edu/effective_teaching/) [79 references]

Summarized by J. T. P. Yao, 6/30/00

"… Engineering schools and professors have been told by countless panels and blue-ribbon commissions … that we must strengthen our coverage of fundamentals; teach more about 'real-world' engineering design and operations, including quality management; cover more material in frontier areas of engineering; offer more and better instruction in both oral and written communication skills and teamwork skills; provide training in critical and creative thinking skills and problem-solving methods; produce graduates who are conversant with engineering ethics and the connections between technology and society; and reduce the number of hours in the engineering curriculum so that the average student can complete it in four years."

"The reality is that better teaching methods exist. … The instructional methods to be described have been chosen to meet the following criteria:

The are relevant to engineering education. …
They can be implemented within the context of the ordinary engineering classroom. …
Most engineering professors should feel reasonably comfortable with them after a little practice. …
They are consistent with modern theories of learning and have been tried and found effective by many educators. …"

"Formulate and Publish Clear Instructional Objectives

Instructional objectives are statements of what students should be able to do to demonstrate their mastery of course material and desired skills. … The behavior specified in an instructional objective must be directly observable by the instructor and should be as specific and unambiguous as possible. … Instructional objectives may involve skills that cover a broad spectrum of complexity and difficulty. … Make the objectives as detailed and specific as possible: rather than simply saying that the student should be able to 'design a chemical plant,' list all the different things the student will be expected to do (look up, estimate, calculate, create, analyze, select, explain) when designing the plant. Make class exercises, homework assignments, and tests consistent with the objectives. Give the objectives to the students to use as study guides. … Once formulated, instructional objectives reveal which course topics are most important and deserve the greatest coverage, and which involve little else than memorization and thus merit only cursory attention or possible elimination from the curriculum. …"

"Establish Relevance of Course Material and Teach Inductively

… Begin teaching each course and each new topic within it by describing the physical and chemical phenomena to be studied and the types of problems to be solved, using examples familiar to the students if possible. … A good way to begin is to divide the class into groups of three or four and have the groups generate as many examples as they can think of in a brief period of time, adding your own to supplement whatever they come up with. … Give them the allotted time …, then stop them and collect the ideas, listing them without criticism. … The flow of information in the presentation of course material should generally follow that of the scientific method: begin with induction, proceeding by inference from specifics (facts, observations, data) to generalities (rules, theories, co-relations, mathematical modals), and then switch to deduction, using the rules and models to generate additional specifics (consequences, applications, predictions). …"

"Balance Concrete and Abstract Information in Every Course

… Balance concrete and abstract content in the presentation of all engineering courses. … Some suggestions for doing so follow:

Do everything listed under the category of establishing relevance in the preceding section.
Intersperse concrete illustrations and applications throughout theoretical developments rather than waiting until the final formulas have been derived. …
When illustrating how formulas and algorithms are applied, use numbers rather than algebraic variables in at least the first example. …
Provide visual illustrations and demonstrations of course-related material when possible. …
Never venture too far from the realm of experimentation. …

One way to help students gain a deeper understanding of course material is to ask questions that require such an understanding, first in class problems and homework and then on tests. …"

"Promote Active Learning in the Classroom

… Several times during each lecture period, ask the students to form into groups of 2 to 4 and give them brief exercises that last anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. … For example,

Outline a strategy for solving the problem just posed.
Draw a flowchart (schematic) for the process just described.
Think of as many practical applications as you can of this (system, device, formula).
Get started on the solution of the problem and see how far you can get with it in two minutes.
What is the next step in the derivation?
Complete this calculation.
Prove or verify this result.
Suppose you carry out experimental measurements and the results fail to agree with the theoretical formula we just derived. Think of as many possible explanations as you can.
What questions do you have about this material?

… Active learning methods make classes much more enjoyable for both students and instructors. …"

"Use Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning (CL) is an instructional approach in which students work in teams on learning task structures to have the following features:

Positive independence. …
Individual accountability. …
Face-to-face promotive interaction. …
Appropriate use of interpersonal and teamwork skills. …
Regular self-assessment of team functioning. …

…

Recommendation …

Explain to students what you are doing and why …

Assign some or all homework to teams of 3-4 students …

Form the groups yourself …

Form teams that are heterogeneous in ability level …

Assign team roles that rotate with each assignment …

Promote positive interdependence …

Get teams to assess how well they are functioning …

Consider doing some testing of pairs or groups …

Do not re-form groups too often …

Provide an escape mechanism for teams having severe difficulties …

Do not assign course grades on a curve …

Start small and build …

…"

"Give Challenging but Fair Tests

…

Give the students instructional objectives for each test in the form of a study guide. …
When writing the test, consult the instructional objectives and make sure that 10-15% of the test covers the more challenging material in the study guide …
Always work a test out yourself from scratch when you have finish writing it, timing how long it takes to do it. …
Minimize speed as a factor in performance on tests. …
Do not test skills that students have not had a chance to practice. …
Even if you curve grades, if the average is in the 50-60 range or below, consider the possibility that it was a poor test or that you did a poor job of preparing the students for it. …

…"

"Convey a Sense of Concern About the Students' Learning

…

Learn the students' names. …
Make yourself available. …
If you use nontraditional methods such as cooperative learning, explain how what your doing has been shown to lead to improved learning and/or improved preparation for the careers. …
Celebrate the students' achievements. …
Collect periodic feedback and respond appropriately to it. …
Let students participate in learning and performance assessment. …
Maintain a sense of respect for the students, individually and collectively. …

…"

[Readers who are interested in this article are encouraged to read the original paper in its entirety. Other summary notes on faculty reward systems are available on the Internet at http://lohman.tamu.edu under the heading "Summaries of Papers ..."]

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