Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Sheri Shepherd discusses excellence in teaching and engineering

In this talk the relationships between teaching and research are explored. Examples are presented that illustrate the variety of ways that teaching can affect the engineering student experience. The talk draws from the soon to be published book Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future, and emerging findings from the NSF-funded Academic Pathways Study (APS). Educating Engineers, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, addresses the perception that professional education has been plagued by a long-standing failure to connect theory and practice in systematic, productive ways. The APS investigates the ways that engineering college students navigate their education, and pays particular attention to how students develop skills, identity and commitment to engineering. Taken together, Educating Engineers and APS show the ways that engineering education is meeting students’ and the nation’s needs and the many ways it is failing to do so, and suggest ways that for us to embark on redesigning engineering higher education.
You can watch or download the presentation on the Rice Webcast Archives Site.