What we know about learning [engineering education]

Summary form only as given. Traditionally, engineering research and the teaching of engineering have been approached in very different ways. To prepare for research, we undergo years of rigorous training, both in scientific knowledge and in methods of gaining new knowledge through experimentation and analysis. To prepare for teaching, we acquire the same knowledge, but except for a stint or two as a teaching assistant, we receive almost no training in how to impart it to students. Teaching, we are told, is an art, or possibly an inborn talent. Fortunately, knowledge about human learning processes has developed to the point where we can do better. There is a quite well developed science of human learning which has strong implications for the ways in which our students should learn and we should teach. Here, the author comments on some of the things we know about human learning, and especially some of the things we have learned recently, that can substantially improve university instruction