ISSN 2230- 9373
Volume-VI, Issue-1
January-March, 2016
ENGINEERING EDUCATION THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Chinmay Das
Department of Mechanical Engineering ABIT, Cuttack,India
Abstract
Engineering education needs complete revamp to make it relevant in present situation. Limiting the learning only into class room activities will not yield sufficient tangible benefits for present generation. Experiential learning will open a new perspective toward teaching-learning process. This paper tends to address some issues on experiential learning.
Key Words: Kolb’s learning style, virtual network, engineering excellence
1. INTRODUCTION
Recent surveys conducted by various industrial body show that the large percentage of engineering students graduating from various educational institutes in India are not unemployable. The widening gap between industry standards and deteriorating quality of students’ intake created huge turbulence in employment sector. If a comparison is made between American and Indian engineering education, the aspect that clearly distinguish the two systems is the teaching-learning process. While American system is more focused on skill based learning, in India it is still glued to knowledge based processes. But unfortunately the students are not appreciating this approach due to lack of capacity and capability.
Most of the students are searching for
shortcuts to certificate rather than toiling through volumes of text and reference books. Excellence in engineering is a distant dream. This lack luster approach toward learning is indirectly hampering the national economy. If India to prosper in economic sector a growth rate of double digit is essential. Without excellence in engineering this is not possible to achieve. In India only top five percent of the students attend national level institutions for higher education. These students then serve the economy of other developed countries. The remaining ninety five percent students actually stay within India but most of them could not contribute in the field of engineering. It has been observed that these unemployables are joining various non-engineering fields like sales, courier, labour supply, etc to earn their living.
A number of studies showed that these students have less inclination toward fundamental theories than some interesting practical activities. The author has hands on experience of involving these type students in various industrial projects with encouraging results. The remaining part of this paper will illustrate more on experiential learning.
excellence can be achieved through overall development in three domains, i.e., knowledge, skill and behavioural instincts. The cardinal dimensions to be looked into can be explained with the X, Y and Z axes. [1]
X: Knowledge acquired by the engineer at any given stage and his/her ability to acquire more and re knowledge. The depth and width of these and the level of excellence reached constitute the measure for this dimension.
Y: Ability of the engineer to apply his/her knowledge for the progress and good of the society. The skills acquired, the productivity of application of the skills and knowledge to any given issue in service of the society constitute the measure for this dimension.
Z: Behavioural instincts and habits so that all actions of the engineer are within the framework of socially responsible conduct of affairs. Indian heritage is fortunately so rich in this, if these are put into real practice in all the day to day affairs excellence can automatically be reached.
Fig1: Basic dimensions of excellence in engineering
In many engineering educational institutions the entire academic programme comprises of only undergraduate courses without any linkage with research, design, and industrial and engineering activities in practice. It is now well understood that an undergraduate education is better in an environment of post-graduate programme. Similarly, both the undergraduate and
postgraduate programmes get better toned up when these are pursued in an industrial environment where engineering is practiced in the field or in a research environment such as those covered by doctoral and post-doctoral programmes; it would be even better if these postgraduate and research programmes are also pursued in an environment of applied research, design, consultancy, and field practices in industry or agricultural engineering. [1]
Engineering education will contribute significantly to the economy if all above three domains are given equal importance. The present situation also demands more and more emphasis on skill development so that unemployability issue is properly addressed. The author proposes introduction of experiential learning approach for undergraduate engineering education. In this matter the research work of David Kolb can provide a good platform for learning
3. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it. [2]
“Experiential” means relating to or resulting from experience while “experimental” means relating to or based on experiment. Kolb uses the term “experiential” as his theory is based more on reflection of experiences. Kolb's learning model is based on two continuums that form a quadrant: Processing Continuum: Our approach to a task, such as preferring to learn by doing or watching.
Perception Continuum: Our emotional response, such as preferring to learn by thinking or feeling. This matrix provides a learning cycle that involves four processes that must be present for learning to occur.
Concrete experience (feeling): Learning from specific experiences and relating to people. Sensitive to other's feelings. Reflective observation (watching): Observing before making a judgment by viewing the environment from different perspectives. Looks for the meaning of things.
Abstract conceptualization (thinking): Logical analysis of ideas and acting on intellectual understanding of a situation.
Active experimentation (doing): Ability to get things done by influencing people and events through action. Includes risk-taking.
Depending upon the situation or environment, the learners may enter the learning cycle at any point and will best learn the new task if they practice all four modes. An example is given here.
Learning to ride a bicycle:
Reflective observation - Thinking about riding and watching another person ride a bike.
Abstract conceptualization - Understanding the theory and having a clear grasp of the biking concept.
Concrete experience - Receiving practical tips and techniques from a biking expert.
Active experimentation - Leaping on the bike and have a go at it.
Kolb views the learning process as a context of people moving between the modes of concrete experience (CE) and abstract conceptualization (AC), and reflective observation (RO) and active experimentation (AE). Thus, the effectiveness of learning relies on the ability to balance these modes, which Kolb sees as opposite activities that best promote learning. He theorized that the four combinations of perceiving and processing determine one of four learning styles of how people prefer to learn. Kolb believes that learning styles are not fixed personality traits, but relatively stable patterns of behavior that is based on their background and experiences. Thus, they can be thought of more as learning preferences, rather than styles.
Diverging (concrete, reflective) - Emphasizes the innovative and imaginative approach to doing things. Views concrete situations from many perspectives and adapts by observation rather than by action. Interested in people and tends to be feeling-oriented. Likes such activities as cooperative groups and brainstorming.
Assimilating (abstract, reflective) - Pulls a number of different observations and thoughts into an integrated whole. Likes to reason inductively and create models and theories. Likes to design projects and experiments.
As per Kolb’s learning approach the students’ learning preferences need to be identified. For example diverging learning demands more and more interdisciplinary subjects. Therefore instead of rigid course structure University must introduce flexible rules so that students can take subjects as per their choice and fulfill the credit requirements. These types of students should be given task of compiling knowledge bank and do literatures review on different subjects for the department.
Assimilating style students should be given task of developing strategies for various operations of the department and institute. They may be involved in different project formulations. Converging style students are good choice for execution of different projects. The department or institute can complete various industry oriented projects with the help of these students. And the last category students are best in finishing any activity which has uncertainty and less information components. They can find routes through trial and error approach, now-a-days most awaited skill.
In order to make the engineering students more employable and valuable the course structure of under graduate education should be industry oriented. All students have to attend industrial training of one month each in second and third years during the summer break. The final semester should be redesigned to have compulsory three to four months internship in any industry and no theoretical subjects for learning. The students will carry out practical projects relevant to the industrial concern in which they undertake internship. The project work would be jointly evaluated by one person from industry and the academic supervisor from the institute. Similarly student will deliver academic seminar relevant to both industry and institute.
In addition to regular teaching learning process , short term skill development programme like CAD/CAM, Hydraulic/Pneumatic control, VLSI, PLC programming , etc. should be organised inside the campus to update the students about latest practices prevailed in industries. With proper skill acquisition more and more engineering students will contribute to our economy in design and development, project engineering, precision manufacturing, software products, reverse engineering, etc.
Since it is not possible for a standalone self financing institute to implement all above strategies, therefore collaborative learning through virtual network can be tried. A virtual network is formed among like minded persons, institutions and industries to augment existing knowledge on different domains. [3]
4. CONCLUSION
Indian engineering education is now at a cross road. Through proper policies and perspectives she can join the developed world sooner through overall development in economic, social and political scenarios. Due to lack of interest for traditional knowledge based learning system by bulk of the student community, skill based learning should be implemented as quickly as possible. Experiential learning methodology will definitely yield result which will bring sea change in engineering education. More research work can be done to adapt various learning techniques to experiential teaching-learning system.
5. REFERNCES
[1] Visvesvaraya H C, “Excellence in Engineering”, Technorama, March 2012, published by The Institution of Engineers (India),pp. 22-25.
3. Das Chinmay, “Innovations through Virtual Enterprise: A Case study for MSMEs”, International Journal of Engineering, Business and Enterprise Applications, 5(1), June-August, 2013, pp. 77-80
