Learning through entrepreneurially oriented case-based instruction

• Autores: Juan García, Joe Sinfield, Aman Yadav, Robin S. Adams
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 28, no. 2, 2012, págs. 448-457
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • As an increasing number and proportion of engineers engage in endeavors that involve technical, socio-economic, and culturalcomplexity, there is likely an increased need for broader skill sets than those honed in typical engineering coursework. In particular,much of engineering education is focused on developing problem-solving skills in situations for which there is an accepted problem-solving paradigm. However, when novel problems arise and a prevailing paradigm ceases to work properly, these problem-solvingskills are likely to be ineffective, resulting in inconclusive or flawed results. Future engineers must therefore learn to identify whenthe prevailing paradigm is flawed and successfully manage such situations in order to solve problems for which no readily availablesolution exists. To help engineering students develop such skills, educators should likely provide educational experiences thatmotivate students at both a cognitive and meta-cognitive level and allow students to recognize potentially flawed paradigms so theycan tackle ambiguous and ill-structured problems. In many ways, the skills required for this type of problem-solving parallel theattributes of another class of professionals—entrepreneurs, as entrepreneurs routinely seek to break with accepted norms andpioneer new approaches to problems they observe in their environment. With this analogy in mind, this paper presents results fromthe implementation of an entrepreneurially oriented case study as a means to enhance engineering student attitudes andperspectives on problem-solving and learning.