Examines three factors contributing to the perceived hostility toward women on university campuses dominated by science and engineering programs. Considers student resistance to direct instruction on gender issues and strategies for overcoming their resistance. Describes two courses that successfully used project-based learning to raise gender…

Examines the role of second-language issues as a barrier to adequate science education for underrepresented groups in science and engineering. Also explores how current educational reform initiatives provide an opportunity for widespread change in how English-language learners (ELL) learn science. Examines several model projects that attempt to…

Describes the practical experience of team teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the same class as a content instructor in engineering at the United Arab Emirates University. Examines classroom dynamics as they evolved and advantages and drawbacks. The team teaching approach enabled instructors to build a bottom up ESP curriculum based…

Reports on initiatives taken to promote project-based learning by information and communication technology in both pilot and large scale projects. Reviews the history of paradigm shifts with regard to technological advances. (DDR)

Considers how biotechnology affects human-rights issues; in particular, the need for reexamining concerns about reproductive technology, the rights of indigenous peoples, and the rights of future generations. Maintains that the new areas for human-rights discussions, such as germ-line manipulation and genetic screening, are unprecedented concerns…

Outlines the procedures followed in the needs analysis (NA) project carried out in 1996 at the College of Petroleum and Engineering at Kuwait University. Focuses on the steps taken in the project and the rationale behind them. Offers an illustration of an NA project and to show the procedural steps involved. (Author/VWL)

Compares current workforce demographics with those of the future where the "older worker" will emerge as primary target for human development effort. Examines common myths and current research about the "older worker." Describes strategies for modifying the workplace environment, reassessing workforce motivational strategies, and altering training…

Presents a new self-assessment package designed primarily for distance students to assess their readiness or mastery of particular topics; it allows a student to self-grade a series of questions, offering flexibility and the opportunity to be awarded partial credit. Results of evaluation conducted with engineering students studying mathematics…

"VizClass" is a university classroom environment designed to offer students in computer graphics and engineering courses up-to-date visualization technologies. Three digital whiteboards and a three-dimensional stereoscopic display provide complementary display surfaces. Input devices include touchscreens on the digital whiteboards, remote…

This chapter highlights some specific differences encountered between K-12 and higher education settings as a way to provide context for several research studies under way in engineering education. Specifically, this chapter highlights differences in three aspects of an academic learning environment: faculty, students, and subject matter.

The challenge of preparing engineering graduates for a fast-changing work environment calls for the development of thinking programmes. A psychological basis was used to develop the tenets of the approach. The Cognitive Modifiability Intervention (CMI) was rationalized and conceived as a corollary of observations of learning scenarios and an…

This article describes the Gironacel[R] project--a virtual learning environment produced by the University of Girona. The purpose of this tool is to make it easier for students studying quality management courses within engineering schools to understand what the "quality culture" is and how to implement the ISO 9001:2000 standard in a…

Employers often consider graduates to be unprepared for employment and lacking in vocational skills. A common demand from them is that the curriculum should include "communication skills," as specific skills in their own right and also because of the central role that such skills can play in developing other desirable attributes. Current thinking…

This longitudinal study focuses on the transition from higher education to working life. Research has hitherto described the transition in rather general terms, and there is still only limited knowledge about how graduates construe themselves as professionals, or how they experience the transition to the sociocultural contexts of working life. In…

The reasons to introduce formats of active learning in engineering (ALE) such as project work, problem-based learning, use of cases, etc. are mostly based on practical experience, and sometimes from applied research on teaching and learning. Such research shows that students learn more and different abilities than in traditional formats of…