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Session 3230

AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING AND LEARNING AT THE PROFESSIONAL LEVEL FOR GRADUATE ENGINEERS IN INDUSTRY

T G STANFORD and D A KEATING University of South Carolina

1. INTRODUCTION

While traditional engineering education and graduate outreach programs are primarily based on the didactic approach to teaching and learning, namely the transmission and acquisition of knowledge, it is now apparent that an educational transformation and a different approach to teaching and learning is needed at the advanced professional level for graduate engineers in industry. At present, graduate education in engineering is primarily a byproduct of research, based on a science-driven model of technology, largely set in place in 1945 by the Bush report, “Science: The Endless Frontier.”1

It is now apparent, after 50 years, that this model is only partially correct. Based on a new understanding of the technology innovation process, it is now evident that technology innovation is primarily a deliberate and systematic needs-driven process using the creative engineering method. While research-driven graduate education has served the nation well in the education of future academic researchers, it is now recognized that a different graduate education alternative and approach is required for the majority of the nation’s graduate engineers in industry who are pursuing non-research professional career paths in the leadership of needs-driven innovation and technology development.

2. FRAMING THE ISSUES

Education means different things to different people. The lack of an appropriate definition of education for human resource development has limited the advancement of professional education at research universities and their fullest interaction and contributions to industry. Specifically, reference is made to the further advanced professional education of the nation’s in- place graduate engineers in industry who are vital to improving industry’s innovation and technological competitiveness.

2.1 Graduate Educational Policy and Scientific Research

Traditionally, the model of professional education for graduate engineers derives from the concept of research-driven knowledge transfer and learning at the universities, and subsequent application in professional practice by the practitioner. This concept of education is the result of the linear science-driven model of technology. The existing policy for graduate science education in the United States was basically established in the Bush report1 to the president which outlined a program for continual technological progress after World War II. This report was a landmark, and it set the stage for national investment in postwar scientific research and graduate, research-oriented education that led to America’s rise in graduate scientific research.

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Stanford, T. G., & Keating, D. (1998, June), An Integrative Approach To Teaching And Learning At The Professional Level For Graduate Engineers In Industry Paper presented at 1998 Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/1-2--7224