Three weeks ago I went to Copenhagen (Denmark) in order to facilitate a course
about higher education. It was an amazing experience! Unfornately, it showed me that I still need to improve my English skills. However, if I exclude this fact, I couldn’t be happier about the outcomes that we got during this course (we were 4 facilitators).
The topics that
we approached were (i) attractiveness of engineering degrees, (ii) self-direct
learning and (iii) the role of the professor in higher education. Because I was
responsible for the first topic attractiveness of engineering courses, it’s
the one that I can speak the most. This theme it was divided in 3 sessions: (a) Interdisciplinary Curricula, (b) Learning Techniques and (c) The role of the
engineer.
Attractiveness
of Engineering Degrees approach the fact that young people tend to pick other
degrees rather natural sciences or engineering degrees. For example, the quantity of women’s picking engineering it's very low, usually they're
more interested in social sciences, economics or areas where they can deal
directly with other people. Due to this, during these sessions we tried to
answer the question: “what can we do to invert this scenario?”.
There are
different measures that can be taken to change this scenario, during the first
session we discussed the one that it’s been proven as having more impact, her
name it was “Interdisciplinary Curricula”. It approached the fact that, the creation of a curricula that
embraces subjects as technical sociology, entrepreneurship, economics and
languages, it’s attracting more students (female and male) than a mono studies
engineering curricula. The world is not just mathematics or physics, through
the creation of an interdisciplinary degree, the students have the opportunity to
understand how all these different fields of studies can be related in a real world situation.
In the second
session we discussed, according to their impact, the measure that follows “the
creation of an interdisciplinary curricula”, which was “Learning Techniques”. The
students tend to pick degrees and subjects that are more dynamic, which can be
achieved by using innovative learning techniques and teaching methods. Are
examples of learning techniques: brainstorming, six thinking hats and
presentations. On the other hand, when we speak about teaching methods, we are
discussing topics such as problem based learning or self-direct learning.
In order to
finish this cycle, the last session it was about the engineer role in the
society. Depending on the country where we live, the way that society see the engineering
roles is different. The reputation of an engineering profession it's different from country to country. The same happen with the salary or the employability.
All these 3 indicators are affecting the quantity of people that are enrolling in engineering degrees.
These were the themes that we discussed under the topic Attractiveness of Engineering Degrees. In the next days, I want to write about the other 2. However, because it wasn't me that prepared those topics, before writting about them I need to get some more informations.
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| Of course that this experience it wasn't just about facilitation! |
