Engineering students need to learn to teach

Practicing engineers, engineering faculty and students all conceive engineering practice in terms of solitary technical work, typically calculations contributing to problem solving and design. Research based on extensive interviews and field observations in four countries demonstrates that engineering practice has many other aspects, particularly ones involving social interactions such as technical coordination, organizing people to supply services, procurement, training, review, and checking. Many engineers regard these aspects as subordinate: not ‘real engineering’. Therefore it comes as no surprise that students resist being taught the social and professional skills they need for effective practice. The same research also shows that many aspects of engineering practice are closely related to teaching, particularly technical coordination and training. This creates an interesting opportunity to improve engineering education. If students learn effective teaching skills, first they will acquire social skills that will enable them to be more effective engineers, second they will learn the ‘real technical stuff’ better, and third they will amplify the total teaching effort available within a given engineering school, further improving overall learning outcomes. This paper offers practical suggestions for implementing such a strategy.

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