Curricular Innovation and Emerging Knowledge in Chemical Engineering in Mexico. Study Comparative

Abstract

The purposes in this research were identifying the principal elements in the chemical engineering curriculum in some universities in Mexico. In this comparative study, it is presented a series of results from an analysis in the curriculum of the chemical engineering college degree. On one hand, some curricular proposals include the incorporation of emergent issues and novelty affairs in relation to innovative technologies, studies of renewable energy sources and synthetic fuels, recycling of products and byproducts, biotechnology, polymers, nano-technologies and new materials. On the other the approach of educational proposals focusing on the student's self-learning, such as: the incorporation of virtual educational modalities, multilingual education, the approach to professional stages (learning by doing), and the internationalization and quality of educational programs. Summarizing the results, it can be noted that in analyzed curricula, the need to incorporate in addition to new knowledge, provide environments of open and flexible learning, in which the potential of new educational technologies is exploited is observed, the databases, expert systems, multimedia and telecommunications