Abstract
In this rapidly changing world of technology and economic conditions, it is essential that practicing engineers and engineering educators continue to grow in their skills and knowledge in order to stay competitive and relevant in the industrial and educational work space. This paper describes the results for a course that combined the best techniques of andragogy to promote active learning in a curriculum of chemistry education, in particular, chemistry laboratory education. This experience with two separate correspondence classes with similar demographics are reported on. Questionnaires and oral open-ended discussions were used to assess the outcome of this effort. Overall the approach received positive reception while pointing out that correspondence students have full time jobs and active learning in general requires more effort and time.
Highlights
A person’s initial period of education takes 15-20 years of life and prepares them to enter the work force
The UNESCO International Commission Report on Education for the XXI century [2] proclaims that teaching people how to independently acquire knowledge, skills and abilities should be the main objective of traditional education
Active learning using many of the tools from andragogy and project based learning could be an attractive approach to capitalize on their experience
Summary
A person’s initial period of education takes 15-20 years of life and prepares them to enter the work force. Beside technical skills, improving interpersonal skills in an interdisciplinary environment is critical to professional growth in most careers Creation of this positive attitude toward self-directed learning along with the ability to flourish in an interdisciplinary team environment is one of the challenges of an undergraduate program, in the engineering disciplines but in all disciplines of a full university program. Besides the challenging requirements of rapidly changing technology in the information technology, their career growth is often into management involving inter-disciplinary teams and requiring a high degree of interpersonal skills to manage and direct such teams As their years of experience increases, these professionals acquire invaluable experience themselves and by observation of others in their environment. Active learning using many of the tools from andragogy and project based learning could be an attractive approach to capitalize on their experience
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