How can we prepare future engineers to the labour market? A University-Business Cooperation project using Context and Problem-Based Learning approaches
•Transferir como PPTX, PDF•
2 gostaram•372 visualizações
Presented at the 8th International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education (PAEE 2016), Guimarães, Portugal. http://paee.dps.uminho.pt/
Recomendados
Recomendados
Mais conteúdo relacionado
Mais procurados
Mais procurados (20)
Semelhante a How can we prepare future engineers to the labour market? A University-Business Cooperation project using Context and Problem-Based Learning approaches
Semelhante a How can we prepare future engineers to the labour market? A University-Business Cooperation project using Context and Problem-Based Learning approaches (20)
Mais de Gonçalo Cruz Matos
Mais de Gonçalo Cruz Matos (19)
Último
Último (20)
How can we prepare future engineers to the labour market? A University-Business Cooperation project using Context and Problem-Based Learning approaches
- 1. How can we prepare future engineers to the labour market? A University-Business Cooperation project using Context and Problem-Based Learning approaches Gonçalo Cruz1,3 and Caroline Dominguez2,3 1INESC TEC – Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Tecnologia e Ciência, Porto, Portugal 2CIDTFF – Centro de Investigação ‘Didática e Tecnologia na Formação de Formadores’, Aveiro, Portugal 3University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
- 2. AGENDA 1.BACKGROUND 2.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.OUR CONTEXT AND PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 4.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION 5.FUTURE WORK
- 3. Companies find students not enough prepared for the challenges of the real world/labour market (Andrews and Higson, 2008; Jackson, 2014)
- 4. Students (also) find that.. (European Commission, 2013; OECD, 2015)
- 8. AGENDA 1.BACKGROUND 2.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.OUR CONTEXT AND PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 4.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION 5.FUTURE WORK
- 9. Exploratory Case Study Research (Yin, 2013) RQ1: How this kind of projects (UBC) and pedagogical approaches (CBL and PBL) can impact students' learning? RQ2: In which extent it can bring value for the companies involved? Data Collection: supported by participatory observation and two questionnaires students' and experts' general expectations, perceptions and attitudes towards this UBC project .
- 10. AGENDA 1.BACKGROUND 2.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.OUR CONTEXT AND PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 4.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION 5.FUTURE WORK
- 11. Our context
- 12. Learning Objectives • Identify activities which generate value and those which produce waste in an industrial environment; • Analyse potential benefits (and drawbacks) of using some of the most popular tools of lean management; • Apply key performance management metrics; • Improve self-confidence in solving problems and in tackling the real entrepreneurial world’s challenges.
- 13. Implementation 21 students 13 companies 1 teacher
- 14. 1st stage: project setup
- 15. 2nd stage: processes observation and discussion
- 16. 3rd stage: problem-solving and proposal of solutions
- 17. AGENDA 1.BACKGROUND 2.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.OUR CONTEXT AND PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 4.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION 5.FUTURE WORK
- 18. Students’ profile 16 from 21 responded 23 years / average Few previous work experience Almost none similar experience at the university
- 19. Companies experts' profile 11 from 13 responded 45 years old / average High range of roles and position within their companies
- 21. Awareness
- 22. Trust Building
- 23. Clear objectives
- 24. Experts’ profile, number and diversity of visits/talks
- 26. Type and length of UBC project
- 27. AGENDA 1.BACKGROUND 2.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.OUR CONTEXT AND PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH 4.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION 5.FUTURE WORK
- 30. Any questions? Thank you for your attention! goncaloc@utad.pt
Notas do Editor
- The goal of this presentation is to characterize the impact of a University-Business Cooperation (UBC) project, using CBL and PBL, on the students' learning outcomes and its added value for companies. But let me tell you, why is this kind of cooperation important. And I will tell you first from my own experience:
- Firstly, I will present some background that supports our work. Some facts and approaches that are already been used by the educational and research community around the globe.
- Firstly, companies complain about the need to develop complex thinking, interpersonal communication and participatory learning , personal shaping of knowledge, managerial abilities, etc. (Andrews and Higson, 2008; Jackson, 2014).
- Even though promoted by educational policies, the opportunities to develop the aforementioned skills are generally scarce and undervalued within the Higher Education standardized curricula - which still, in a large scale, underline the memorization, retrieval and transmission of knowledge.
- So, a pathway to face this kind of problems, using the mentioned approaches, is UBC. However, the adoption of UBC projects for educational purposes is less common than for research and development (European Commission, 2014). It needs a high effort and commitment by teachers (the UBC projects can happen in a mid and long-term only if the teacher are available for it). There are funding barriers, Bureaucracy trust-building, time constraints, etc. Few academics are aware of the possibilities of UBC or not actively involved (only in a informal or personal approach).
- We need to adopt new approaches, such as Context-Based Learning (CBL) - that uses real-life cases in order to help students to learn through the practical experience on a subject rather than just by its mere theoretical knowledge (Rose, 2012).
- But also, with PBL - helping learners acquire knowledge, skills and competences which are essential in working life. Providing them a contextualised understanding of the knowledge acquired in the lectures (authentic learning), enhancing their motivation for learning and encourages social interactions with employers, promoting their entrepreneurial behavour (Rossano et al., 2016). We had a great example of a PBL model that are been developed for years at Aalborg, as our previous keynote presented.
- The research methodology was based on a case study research (Yin, 2013) supported by participatory observation and two questionnaires of quantitative and qualitative questions applied to all students and companies’ experts involved in the experience. Both questionnaires were designed to collect students' and experts' general expectations, perceptions and attitudes towards this UBC project in order to evaluate how this kind of projects and pedagogical approach can impact students' learning and to which extent it can bring value for the companies involved.
- This UBC project took place during a semester of a Mechanics Engineering Master’s degree. It focused on the Industrial Management course’s syllabus (operations and lean management) which is credited with 3 ECTs. Its main objective was to get students acquainted with the industry/business world, learn how companies tackle the challenge of operations’ continuous improvement and present solutions to some problems provided by the companies.
- students had to get acquainted with 1) value and waste concepts/activities in an industrial environment (and in general), 2) the potential of some of the most popular tools of lean management and 3) management metrics. One of the main personal and interpersonal expected outcomes included the improvement of self-confidence in solving problems and in tackling the real-world entrepreneurial challenges.
- The teacher established a close collaboration with 13 different companies: 7 from the service sector and 6 from the industrial production, which resulted in the delivery of a 2 hours F2F hands-on session in the classroom with an interactive discussion of their case and context with the students (4), or in an interactive on site visit by the whole class in which industrial challenges were presented as well as how companies tackled them (9).
- So, here is where the journey begins. Teacher really have to wear this shirt :D A previous talk between the teacher and each one of the professionals was held in order to clarify the objectives and the content of the course. It focused, in particular, on the need for the professionals to provide the necessary conditions for students to observe, question and discuss the problems (inefficiencies in the processes) and the tools used to solve them. Besides preparing the visits and talks with each company, the teacher’s role was to help students preparing themselves for an active engagement in the project (giving insight on “questioning” strategies), to give an overview on lean management theory, to create (with the students) and provide a template for their reports (to make sure that all the important points were covered and as a way to prepare the talks and the visits), and to review students’ A3 problem sheet work with frequent feedback.
- A 2 hours session in the classroom with an interactive discussion of their case and context with the students, or in an interactive on site visit by the whole class in which industrial challenges were presented as well as how companies tackled them.
- After students went through all the visits and talks, students were organized in groups of 4 and challenged to characterize/draw the operations flow of one of the companies (each group worked on a different company) to identify the main wastes (pointed out by the lean management literature) and offer a solution for one of the identified problems using the Toyota A3 systematic problem solving sheet (Shook, 2009). Finally, they were incited to share their work with the companies. In this course component, students were evaluated based on their individual visits’ reports and A3 output.
- Students and Experts made a positive appreciation in relation to the Context-Based Learning experience and manifested enthusiasm in having similar activities in the future (in other courses). Not only because students became more confident in finding and presenting their solutions to problems presented by some companies, but also because it challenges their skills and capacities (and thus motivate them). For experts, they also are motivate to keep the project, because it brings an added value in terms of reflection, improvement and dissemination for their companies.
- Students got better aware of the real companies’ challenges and what is expected from them at the workplace (according to the subject learning topics) – this means better prepared.
- At pedagogical level, some key conditions.. trust building between companies and the teacher (which takes time)..
- clear objectives for each intervention (seminars and visits to the companies), without repetition of cases or content/concepts.
- Ensure an adequate number and diversity of visits/talks, as well as the involvement of professionals with good communication skills to engage and motivate students. The number and length of visits/talks was adequate, however in some cases repetitive. The type of talks and visits were diverse. The topics of visits/talks match curricular objetives. Both visits and talks were important and complementary. Interesting and motivating due to experts’ communication skills and profile.
- High attendance but low participation in visits/talks shows the need for a good design of the learning tasks and the assessment criteria which should promote a higher students’ participation (through the development of critical thinking skills such as questioning).
- Both students and companies, considered the possibility to keep developing this kind of projects within a larger period of time - deepening the interaction between students and companies in the problem-solving process. Clearly, the experts were enthusiastic and open to establish a closer partnership in order to strengthen the cooperation and implement/apply the students' practical proposals in their companies. Useful project and proposals, but few contact hours. The course was undervalued in terms of credits.
- In future work it would be interesting to confront the presented results with the analysis of the companies’ perspective and with the students’ cognitive outcomes (Toyota A3 systematic problem solving sheet). Is there really good proposals or the experts only said it by empathy with teacher?
- The other way is to keep developing new types of UBC (webinars with less logistics, traineeships, etc.).