Bringing Engineering Design into High School Science Classrooms: The Heating/Cooling Unit

Infusing engineering design projects in K-12 settings can promote interest and attract a wide range of students to engineering careers. However, the current climate of high-stakes testing and accountability to standards leaves little room to incorporate engineering design into K-12 classrooms. We argue that design-based learning, the combination of scientific inquiry and engineering design, is an approach that can be used to meet both K-12 educators’ and engineering advocates’ goals. This paper describes an 8-week high school curriculum unit, the Heating/Cooling System, in which engineering design is used to teach students central and difficult chemistry concepts such as atomic interactions, reactions, and energy changes in reactions. The goals of the paper are to (1) describe this successful design-based unit, (2) provide guidelines for incorporating design-based learning into other science topics, and (3) provide some evidence of its value for teaching difficult chemistry concepts and increasing interest in engineering careers.     

西方四种归纳学习法的比较

随着新课改的推进,西方的发现学习、探究学习、问题学习、项目学习在我国有越来越多的介绍和应用。四种学习法虽然都属于归纳学习,但由于它们的实施过程和要求存在一定差别,因此,只有充分认识到它们之间的异同,在基础教育教学中才能有针对性地选择运用。     

基于项目的高校外语教学设计——以纪录片制作项目为例

基于项目学习的产生背景和理论基础,设计了一种项目化学习的课堂教学模型——学习记录片的制作,并通过教学实践,论证了纪录片制作这种项目化学习的重要优势：学习模式自主化、团队化;学习过程真实化、创新化;学习形式多元化、多媒体化;学习效果可见化、成就化。开展项目化教学,契合语言学习的特征和规律,对全面提高英语教学质量和实施素质教育都有着重要的现实意义。     

Undergraduate teaching of ideal and real fluid flows: the value of real-world experimental projects

This paper describes the pedagogical impact of real-world experimental projects undertaken as part of an advanced undergraduate fluid mechanics subject at an Australian university. The projects have been organized to complement traditional lectures and introduce students to the challenges of professional design, physical modelling, data collection and analysis. An overview of two projects is presented: wind tunnel testing of buildings and wave loading on piles. Both studies are undertaken as group work within the undergraduate subject. The pedagogy of the projects is discussed in terms of the classical educational psychology literature concerning project-based learning, collaborative and guided learning and reflection. In terms of learning outcomes, the primary aim is to enable students to deliver a professional report as the final product, where physical model data are compared to ideal-fluid flow calculations and real-fluid flow analyses. Thus the students are exposed to a professional design approach involving a high level of expertise in fluid mechanics, with sufficient academic guidance to achieve carefully defined learning goals, while retaining sufficient flexibility for students to construct their own learning goals. The overall pedagogy is a blend of problem-based and project-based learning, which reflects academic research and professional practice. The assessment is a mix of peer-assessed oral presentations and written reports that aims to maximize student reflection and development. Student feedback indicated a strong motivation for courses that include a well-designed project component.     

Moving beyond the teacher-centred/learner-centred dichotomy: implementing a structured model of active learning in the Maldives

In efforts to improve the quality of education, the disparity between policy and practice in implementing learner-centred pedagogy has been well-documented. Acknowledging these challenges, this study investigated active learning reform using design-based research, an interventionist methodology in the Maldives. The intervention specifically sought to address the policy-practice gap through the development of a structured model of active learning, drawing on recommendations in the literature and moving beyond the simple dichotomy of teacher-centred versus learned-centred pedagogy. Teachers’ enactment of the model was studied within a Maldivian island school. The data identified enabling conditions in teachers’ use of the intervention: the pedagogical model needs to be clearly and simply articulated; promote a staggered approach to reform; and reflect and respect local priorities. These were converted into design principles – an outcome of design-based research intended to inform the work of others enacting similar reforms.     

项目教学在高职课程教学中的研究与实践

传统教学模式存在着种种问题,通过对项目教学及其特征的研究,可以建立对项目教学的正确理解与认识,将项目教学的设计方法与实施策略运用于高职课程教学的过程,最后根据教学实践总结出项目教学的实施效果。     

基于设计的研究:教育理论与实践创新的持续动力

教育理论与实践的创新与教育研究的方法或方法论创新密切相关。在设计成为人类社会生活的一种必需方式、设计科学日趋成熟的当今,教育的设计属性逐渐凸显。以往徘徊于科学主义和人文主义路线的教育科学正走向统整的设计科学。作为一种集中方法与方法论功能为一体的新型研究范式,基于设计的研究以洞察和探究真实教育情境中的学习机制为原动力,通过层层递进的问题解决方案的设计、实施、修订与迭代循环,把教育实证研究与理论驱动的学习环境设计融合在一起,是理解教育创新如何、何时以及为什么在实践中起作用的重要方法论,在持续地推动教育理论与实践创新方面蕴含着巨大的潜力。     

高效学习与理解性教学——对话《高效学习》作者Linda Darling-Hammond教授

琳达·达林一哈蒙德（Linda Darling—Hammond）,美国斯坦福大学教育学教授,教育学博士,美国当代教育改革分析家,美国教师专业化改革取向的领军人物,奥巴马政府现行教育政策改革团队领导人．斯坦福教育领导研究所和斯坦福教育机会政策中心联席主任。她和她的团队自20世纪90年代开始聚焦于教育教学改革及实践研究。2008年出版了《高效学习：我们所知道的理解性教学》一书,该书是琳达·达林一哈蒙德（Linda Darling—Hammond）与布里基·巴伦（Brigid Barron）等7位知名学者花了10多年进行学习研究的成果。作者基于人是如何学习的理论观点,聚焦于阅读与素养、数学、科学这三大主要学科领域,从理论和实践层面探索了“理解性教学”的教学形式：基于项目学习、设计的学习问题的学习,阐释了在新技术的强大支持下,革新课堂学习环境,促进高效学习的策略以及影响这些策略有效性的因素与条件。作者还提出了变革学校体系,为理解性教学重构学校的主张。2009年华东师范大学学习科学研究团队翻译了琳达·达林-哈蒙德的这部著作,并就该书中的高效学习与理解性教学的教育思想与作者进行了深度交流。琳达·达林-哈蒙德教授的思考给人们提供了认识21世纪学习的新视角,也会对21世纪学校体系变革带来启示。     

Case study of a problem-based learning course of project management for senior engineering students

The analysis of the current state of the Ukrainian system of engineering education indicates the prevalence of traditional teaching–learning approaches in contrast to the modern needs of the labour market. Many universities across the world use the problem/project-based learning (PBL) which is an effective approach for the development of design and management skills of engineering students. The paper describes a detailed structure of a PBL course in project management and practical experience related to its implementation in an engineering degree programme at Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy. Also, the results of surveys carried out in order to study the students’ generic competences’ development and perception of the PBL process are presented. The results show that students understand the diversity of PBL aspects and the influence of the PBL approach on their professional characteristics such as teamwork, ability of self-directed learning, communication and problem-solving skills.     

Implications of facilitated work-based learning implemented as an approach to continuing engineering education

ABSTRACT

The development of employees’ skills and competences has become a key driver of economic growth in the developed world. It is widely recognised that enhancing people’s skills and competences will be a major cause of future competitive advantage. Consequently, companies need to be able to identify precise areas where they have, or can build, distinctive competences. To meet these needs, various models and approaches for continuing engineering education have emerged. One such approach is the facilitated work-based learning (FWBL) model, the aim of which is to introduce an approach to tailor-made courses built on work-based learning (WBL) and problem-based learning (PBL). This paper addresses the implementation of tailor-made continuing engineering education in company settings through the use of FWBL. It draws on a huge amount of documentation produced within the Via Nord project, which was supported by the European Social Fund and engaged various companies in northern Denmark. The aim is to investigate how the FWBL model worked in practice when implemented as a means for tailor-made continuing engineering education applied in a company setting.     

Between work and learning: on pedagogic practice and interstitial space

In this paper I develop a response to a continuing problem in work–learning research, the connections between education, learning and work. These connections are commonly conceived in terms of the concept of transfer, integration or boundary crossing. Thinking these connections in this way, I claim, serves to consolidate a unitary, stable and fixed idea of the relationship between learning in educational institutions and work and inadvertently reduce its complexity. Drawing on empirical data collected over the course of qualitatively exploring the links between a problem-based program of teacher education (‘learning’) and the practice of participants in this program upon initial employment in schools (‘work’), and deploying actor network theory, I trace new sorts of associations between work and learning and propose a relational conception of their connection. Challenging the common counter-positioning of work and learning, empirical analysis reveals their mutual constitution and partial connection in practices, here, of a predominantly pedagogic and spatial/material kind. Practices that occupy interstitial spaces have a particular resonance with regard to challenging this counter-positioning and unsettling the hierarchies of value which often arise from it.     

STEM Integration in Middle School Life Science: Student Learning and Attitudes

In many countries around the world, there has been an increasing emphasis on improving science education. Recent reform efforts in the USA call for teachers to integrate scientific and engineering practices into science teaching; for example, science teachers are asked to provide learning experiences for students that apply crosscutting concepts (e.g., patterns, scale) and increase understanding of disciplinary core ideas (e.g., physical science, earth science). Engineering practices and engineering design are essential elements of this new vision of science teaching and learning. This paper presents a research study that evaluates the effects of an engineering design-based science curriculum on student learning and attitudes. Three middle school life science teachers and 275 seventh grade students participated in the study. Content assessments and attitude surveys were administered before and after the implementation of the curriculum unit. Statewide mathematics test proficiency scores were included in the data analysis as well. Results provide evidence of the positive effects of implementing the engineering design-based science unit on student attitudes and learning.     

基于问题解决学习模式在远程教育中的应用——以建筑施工课程为例

在远程教育中教师设计教学方案引导学生根据网上教学资源进行自主学习,但是在实践教学过程中发现学生的自主学习能力没有达到教师的预期。基于问题解决学习模式可以提高学生自主学习的主动性和有效性,特别是在建筑施工等实践性强课程中更能有效地引导学生,提高学习效果。     

探讨外教的两种教学法并用于C++教学

探讨我校外教在教学中采用的项目教学法和问题教学法的一些做法和优点,并就在C++语言教学中应用这两种教学法收到的初步成效,阐述应用过程的一些认识及体会。     

基于CDIO理念的教育硕士培养模式探析

CDIO工程教育模式是新时期西方国家工程教育界的一种变革举措,鉴于教师教育与工程教育的相似性,CDIO的教育理念对我国教育硕士的培养实践具有重要的参考价值。在教育硕士专业学位教育实践中,明晰的学习目标、合理的课程设置和灵活的学习方式是提升教育硕士培养质量的关键变量。教育硕士的学习目标主要包括学习内容与学习效果,教育硕士的课程设置着重考虑的是课程结构和课程组织问题,而教育硕士的学习方式基于一体化学习理念,倡导案例学习和项目学习。     

Improving student learning in distance education: Theory,research and practice

The aim of this paper is to examine how project-based learning in distance education can be seen to make a distinctive contribution to “improving student learning”. How has this approach to course design and assessment been put into practice in an Open University (OU) course and what assumptions about teaching and learning are involved in this course development process. The paper also looks briefly at how this project component has been evaluated by describing students’ and tutors’ experiences of learning and teaching in the form of “action research” so to reflect critically on practice and so initiate change.     

Problem-Based Learning Meets Case-Based Reasoning in the Middle-School Science Classroom: Putting Learning by Design(tm) Into Practice

This article tells the story of the design of Learning by Design(tm) (LBD), a project-based inquiry approach to science learning with roots in case-based reasoning and problem-based learning, pointing out the theoretical contributions of both, classroom issues that arose upon piloting a first attempt, ways we addressed those challenges, lessons learned about promoting learning taking a project-based inquiry approach, and lessons learned about taking a theory-based approach to designing learning environments. LBD uses what we know about cognition to fashion a learning environment appropriate to deeply learning science concepts and skills and their applicability, in parallel with learning cognitive, social, learning, and communication skills. Our goal, in designing LBD, was to lay the foundation in middle school for students to be successful thinkers, learners, and decisionmakers throughout their lives and especially to help them begin to learn the science they need to know to thrive in the modern world. LBD has students learn science in the context of achieving design-and-build challenges. Included in LBD's framework is a set of ritualized and sequenced activities that help teachers and students acclimate to the culture of a highly collaborative, learner-centered, inquiry-oriented, and design-based classroom. Those ritualized activities help teachers and students learn the practices of scientists, engineers, and group members in ways that they can use outside the classroom. LBD is carefully crafted to promote deep and lasting learning, but we have learned that careful crafting is not enough for success in putting a collaborative inquiry approach into practice. Also essential are fostering a collaborative classroom culture in which students want to be engaged in deep learning and where the teacher sees herself as both a learner and a facilitator of learning, trusts that with her help the students can learn, and enthusiastically assumes the roles she needs to take on.