UK Centre for Materials Education
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Awarded to: David McPhail
Institution: Imperial College, London
Funded in: 2001 (joint funded under the FDTL "Tutoring Materials" project)
Background: The Materials Engineering department at Imperial College (UK) has been increasing its efforts in the teaching of transferable skills to undergraduate students over the past four years. Skills-teaching includes nine tutorials in the first year of the course facilitated by the personal tutors and booklets have been prepared to assist tutors and tutees.
Aims of the project: To conduct a programme of experimental research to determine whether the Materials Department is teaching the skills that are actually required in the workplace, whether it is teaching them in the best possible way and indeed whether it is important to teach transferable skill to Engineering students.
Methodology: The study was conducted through
questionnaires sent to graduates from the past ten years and to current
undergraduate students.
Interviews were also conducted with lecturers from other departments
within
Imperial College. Issues such as the importance of assessing transferable
skill learning in students, of how much time to allocate to skill
teaching,
of how aware students are of skills acquisition throughout the course
and
what skills seem to be lacking in Undergraduate Engineering courses
were
all discussed across different departments.
Outcomes: Results from the present study strongly support the idea
that
skills should be taught at University. Indeed some employers rate these
skills more important than the technical content of the degree course.
The
study showed that many of the most important skills required in the
workplace are already covered in the undergraduate course; the study
also
suggested other skills that should be implemented. Establishing exercises
related to the simulation of real work situations was thought to be
a
useful approach. Alternatively work placements might be made a compulsory
aspect of all the courses.
More generally, the concept of making students aware of the skills
they
acquire while at university is one that comes across quite clearly
from the
study. One important aspect of this study is that students should keep
a
diary of the skills they acquire during their course. The College has
introduced a Personal Development Programme for all undergraduates
to aid
in reflective learning and this is an important development. This study
also includes a preliminary reaction from different departments across
Imperial College to this new initiative. From the study it also appears
that skills are learnt with more enthusiasm by students if contextualized
within the subject materials. Students take skill learning more seriously
if taken as a side effect of technical learning. Also starting transferable
skills learning early, in the first year of the undergraduate course,
is
the best way of making students immediately aware of the skills they
can
gain throughout the course. Writing skills, and the ability to write
to
different audiences, seems to be one of the skills that most engineering
students are lacking.
References
1. Incorporating Skills Teaching into Science Degrees: A Review and Case Study, F. Ortona and D McPhail, British Journal of Engineering Education (in press).
2. Incorporating Skills teaching into Science Degrees: A Review and Case Study, DS McPhail, P. Harvey and Francesca Ortona, Proceedings of the 2003 WFEO/ASEE e-Conference, 2003, American Society for Engineering Education, 2003. http://www.asee.org/conferences/e-conference/forum.cfm
