Abstract:

In the global world with dramatically fast changing needs and resources it is hard to predict with any degree of certainty what our society will look like in the future. That is why the part of engineering universities’ mission becomes to educate new generation of engineers, who will be able to make a significant contribution to sustainable society development ten, twenty or forty years into the future. They should acquire a number of key professional and generic competencies, necessary to successfully meet the challenges regardless of what the future holds. Such requirements are already included to different extent in EUR-ACE Framework Standards, Washington Accord Graduate Attributes and Professional Competency Profiles, CDIO Syllabus and Federal state educational standards of RF.

High quality professional training in accordance with the principles of outcome-based approach depends on the learning outcomes graduates are expected to achieve upon graduation from the educational program. However, the definition of a set of core competencies is just one of the steps that has to be fulfilled, but not enough for successful achievement of intended learning outcomes by the students. The paper considers the role of teaching and learning methods in designing and implementing of engineering educational programs.

Experience of Russian universities shows that learning and teaching methods required to ensure achievement of intended learning outcomes are addressed only at the final stage of educational program design, after the curriculum structure and academic hours for each discipline are defined. This indicates a sequence of actions confirming the priority of curricula for specific disciplines over teaching methods in educational programs implementation. It also leads to domination of knowledge-based approach over the hands-on active approach in future engineers’ competence development.

The real implementation of interactive training often faces difficulties and contradicts the way educational process is planned. It remains committed to traditional teaching methods and forms of educational activities. Due to this fact, there is a lack of holistic approach in integrating problem-based learning methods in the real educational process. Unfortunately, popular in technical universities traditional approach is focused on lesson training system, and requires from students ability to listen and write down and does not provide one of the main conditions of motivation for learning - engagement of each student in the learning process.

The paper introduces a new method of learning, which represents a set of generally known, but systematically and purposefully organized teaching and learning methods corresponding to the principles of problem-based approach. The proposed learning method is delivered in the form of seminar, where participants (students) act as experts in particular filed of knowledge and are invited to gradually investigate (analyse) the problem and suggest solutions. Therefore, this method is called "Expert Seminar". Such approach requires active work from each participant who feels responsibility and trust given to him/her as an expert. This helps to ensure involvement of all students in the educational process.

A new method of interactive problem-based learning that meets the principles of engagement, interactivity, independence and efficiency is presented in the paper.

Keywords:

Problem-based learning, expert seminar, engagement, interactivity.