Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas G. Stanford; Donald Keating

served the nation well in theeducation of future academic researchers, it is now recognized that an alternative model ofgraduate professional education is required for the majority of the nation’s graduate engineers inindustry and government service who are pursuing non-research professional career paths.Based on this new understanding, it has become evident that the nation’s primary “wellspring”for the generation, creation, and innovation of technology is its human resource base of creativegraduate engineers in industry. Graduate professional education programs that are specificallydesigned to further the leadership growth and creative development of this vital national assetwill directly and immediately stimulate effective innovation for

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas G. Stanford; Donald Keating

creative and leadership potential because creative practitioners must conceiveand implement creative solutions to real-world industrial problems and societal needs thatfrequently go beyond conventional thinking. These solutions demand sound technicalcompetence and the application of the intrinsic human potential of creativity, imagination,vision, judgement, responsible leadership, and original systems thinking.As the findings of the national study indicate, “Faculty and program administrators who took adialogical approach to teaching and learning centered their program’s primary learningexperiences within the context of a tacit “learning community.”3 In this setting, faculty andstudents participated in a variety of activities, including

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

J. A. Isaacs

ScienceFoundation for Institute-wide Reform of Undergraduate Education. One of the guidingprinciples for ACE lies in assisting students during their undergraduate experience to developskill sets (e.g., effective communication, critical thinking, information literacy and interpersonalskills) that stimulate life long learning. These skill sets will be enhanced for undergraduate andgraduate students who participate in courses such as this one, involving active learning in teamsand case studies. In the remainder of this paper, additional driving forces for offering this coursewithin an engineering curriculum are identified, followed by an overview for this quarter-lengthcourse, and descriptions of specific class room activities and assessment practices. 2

Collection

1998 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard M. Felder

counteract this fear, we minimize general educational material that is not clearly linked to the participants’ disciplines, use discipline-specific examples of the strategies and devices we recommend (active and/or cooperative learning, instructional objectives, homework and test construction, or whatever), and avoid “games” (e.g. name- learning icebreakers, brain teasers intended to stimulate creative thinking) that have no apparent connection to the participants’ disciplines.• Include both technical and pedagogical expertise on the workshop facilitation team. Rebecca’s training and professional background are in education and Rich’s are in chemical engineering. Our workshops are better than they would be if either of us