Problem-based learning: student perceptions of its value in developing professional skills for engineering practice

ABSTRACT

This study explores students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) design project, taken as part of a first-year engineering module, in developing professional skills needed for engineering practice. Students completed surveys before and after the PBL group project, and produced personal reflections on the process. The closed survey questions were analysed quantitatively and the main themes from the reflections outlined using General Inductive Analysis. Students rated themselves as having improved across a range of professional skills as a result of the project, with particular emphasis on teamwork, communication skills, understanding of the design process and self-directed learning. In addition, they highlighted improved confidence, as well as new friendships they developed, an important element of a module like this as they transition from secondary to higher education. They were particularly positive about the scaffolded approach taken within the PBL project in terms of its contribution to their learning.     

以提高就业能力为目标的环境设计专业实践教学体系优化

结合唐山学院艺术系环境设计专业的实践教学环节,在探析市场对环境设计专业人才的需求变化的同时,进行实践教学体系的优化,总结出针对环境设计专业以提高就业能力为目标的实践教学体系。     

No ‘self’ left behind? Part-time distance learning university graduates: social class,graduate identity and employability

Higher education (HE) is regarded as a pathway to upward social mobility for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Social mobility is itself seen as important both for individual and national prosperity and is a key driver of government funding for HE. While access to HE has substantially increased over the past number of years, the evidence suggests that social inequalities continue to be reproduced, with working-class students more frequently accessing lower status institutions and courses. This in turn can impact negatively on their labour market outcomes. This paper offers a critical appraisal on the employability discourse. Drawing on a survey of 268 distance graduates from an Irish university, together with 5 individual interviews, findings indicate that distance graduates are likely to be from lower socio-economic backgrounds and have delayed participation in university education for reasons relating to social class. Although mostly in employment, they are motivated to participate in HE by their concerns regarding their long-term employability. The literature identifies that our employability is something we negotiate with others. This paper posits that, for distance graduates, in addition to this process of convincing others, the graduate must also convince themselves of the value of their own achievement. Transitioning to graduate employment, and developing a graduate identity, can therefore be a slow internal and external process of negotiation.     

Adult literacy practitioners and employability skills: resisting neo-liberalism?

We draw on theories of policy enactment to explore the ways in which the situated, material and external contexts and professional cultures in adult literacy in the UK have influenced practitioners. Our analysis of the transnational (OECD, EU) and UK external policy contexts found that skills-related education is prioritised, with a focus on economic growth through increased productivity and accountability. This can lead to a narrow conceptualisation of literacy as a set of information processing skills needed for employment that limits the curriculum so that the knowledge of the participants is ignored. However, our findings show that there is not a one-way flow from the transnational to the local. Instead, literacy practitioners translate and enact policy texts based on their situated contexts and professional cultures leading to approaches to teaching and learning that keep learners and their goals at the centre of the curriculum. We conclude that shared understandings of good practice and an underpinning value system, along with creative ways of delivering pre-set outcomes, allow practitioners to resist to some extent the neoliberal discourse whilst meeting the requirements of policy and funding. However, how feasible delivering this alternative curriculum is over the longer term remains to be seen.     

机电类专业高职生就业力模型的构建研究——基于对制造加工企业的调查

通过研究制造加工企业对机电类专业高职生员工的能力要求,从而建立机电类专业高职生就业力模型。调查表明,机电类专业高职生的再学习能力、敬业精神、发现及解决的问题能力、沟通协调能力及团队合作能力对其日后就业尤为重要,在此基础上总结出对高职院校机电类专业发展的启示。     

Transitioning to engineering practice

ABSTRACT

Transition from education to practice can be troublesome for many early-career engineers because expectations, habitual work practices and values tend to conflict with realities of engineering workplaces. Emerging technologies referred to as ‘Industry 4.0’ or the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ have prompted many to argue for students to develop improved socio-technical skills. Understandings of practice emerging from contemporary research could help educators shape a new generation of engineers with more appropriate abilities to restore global productivity growth and transform economies to eliminate greenhouse emissions in a short enough time to limit human-induced global warming. However, so far, explicit curriculum reforms addressing graduate attributes and workplace skills have not resulted in significant employability improvements. This paper argues that assessment practices and curriculum gaps may be acting as an implied or hidden curriculum shaping student expectations and values. This paper proposes ways to overcome these curriculum deficits in higher education institutions and also workplace education interventions. These changes could help educate engineers about productivity improvement, commercial and social value generation, business requirements and entrepreneurship. Changes like these will be needed to achieve sustainable development goals, especially in developing countries.     

非认知能力在大学毕业生从学校到工作过渡中的作用及培养

人力资本理论强调教育通过传授知识技能提高劳动者的劳动生产率,影响劳动力市场的产出。近年来国际教育经济学界特别关注非认知能力对个人发展的作用及教育对于非认知能力的影响。非认知能力在教育影响劳动力市场产出这一关系中表现为:工作前毕业生评价自身就业力主要基于专业能力,工作后个性品质等非认知能力因素对于毕业生适应职场、提高就业力等发挥了更重要的作用。非认知能力因素可以通过参与社团活动、丰富校园生活、增进人际交流、建设校园精神文化等途径来培养。     

注重非智力因素的培养 提高大学生就业力

大学生就业已经成为社会和学校关注的焦点。激烈的就业竞争,不仅是智力因素的竞争,也是非智力因素的竞争。非智力因素的开发与培养对提高大学生的就业力起着决定性的作用。从非智力因素的培养视角探讨大学生就业力提高的途径。     

Returning to STEM: gendered factors affecting employability for mature women students

This paper adds to current discourses around employability by arguing for an explicit recognition of gender, in particular in relation to women’s employment in male-dominated sectors such as science, engineering and technology. This is not limited to young first-time graduates but continues and evolves throughout the life course. Mature women students, who are returning after career breaks, face a number of barriers in re-entering such employment sectors. Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of women graduates in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, who participated in a UK government-funded online programme aimed at supporting them to return to work, the paper examines three gendered factors identified as being of particular influence on outcomes – gender role normativity, locality and mobility, and structural and institutional barriers. The paper concludes by identifying strategies deployed by those that successfully returned to employment, including retraining, networking and doing unpaid or low-paid work.     

基于心理社会模型的农业院校大学生就业能力培养

就业能力是一种与职业相关的综合能力,包括态度、个性等可变化的核心技能群,就业能力不仅取决于个人拥有的这些核心技能群,而且还与个人所处环境,个人应对劳动力市场的策略以及劳动力市场环境有关。就业能力的心理社会模型认为就业能力包含适应性( Adaptability )、职业认同( Career Identity )、人力资本与社会资本( Human and Social Capital)三个互相关联的部分,并由此提出农业院校大学生就业能力培养策略。