Developing Personal Mastery of

Engineering Educators to Educate Future Engineers

Dr. N . Asokann tvasokan@gmai l . com 91-9445191369

Background

E d u c a t o r s a l w a y s h a v e m o r e t o l e a r n .

P e r s o n a l M a s t e r y i s c e n t r a l t o t h e q u a l i t y o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n

C h a n g e s i n t h e e n g i n e e r i n g p r o f e s s i o n f o l l o w c h a n g e s i n c u l t u r a l , s o c i a l , a n d p o l i ti c a l e n v i r o n m e n t s .

Social and political contexts change, and the specific circumstances in which engineering schools, faculties,

and students find themselves have changed with new technologies and social developments that pose new challenges

Engineering profession in the next decade will undergo dramatic changes, driven by not only technological developments but also societal transformation

Past accomplishment

s of teachers guarantee

nothing about future success and an almost

obsessive need for self-initiated

teaching, learning and

assessing process and continuous

improvement.

3

OPPORTUNITY AND CHALLENGE

Prepare engineers for solving unknown problems and not for addressing assumed scenarios

the emphasis should be on teaching to learn

Teaching engineers to think analytically will be more important than helping them memorize algebra theorems.

Teaching them to cope with rapid progress will be more critical than teaching them all of the technology breakthroughs

In the past 20 years that the amount of new knowledge increases at a logarithmic rate in all technology and physical science disciplines

Students are driven by passion, curiosity, engagement, and dreams

Making universities and engineering institutions exciting, creative, adventurous, rigorous, demanding, and empowering milieus are more important than specifying curricular details.

section 02

Explosive advances in knowledge, instrumentation, communication, and computational capabilities have created mind-boggling possibilities for the next generation.

4

Tra n s f o r m a ti o n s o f E n g i n e e r i n g E d u c a ti o n

Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) identified 12 competences

Seel (2000) suggests that cultural change in engineering education will be achieved only when the nature of the conversation about engineering education has changed.

Eckel and Kezar (2003) suggest that transforming engineering education will require that the majority of engineering faculty members change the way they think about engineering education.

The reformation in engineering education suggest that social and political changes cannot be successfully adapted and adopted if current faculty are not actively encouraged and supported to develop their personal mastery.

section 03

The engineering profession has a trans-organizational character.

Engineering educators have debated at length over the last 125 years

Journal of Engineering Education, 1893, one can track the ongoing debates about the nature and shape of engineering education.

5

Need for a new generation of faculty able to bridge the gap between engineering education and engineering practice.

N e e d fo r fa c u l t y to

p o s s e s s t h e m i x o f

k n o w l e d g e , s k i l l s a n d

ex p e r i e n c e s

To c a p t u r e t h e i m a g i n a t i o n s o f y o u n g p e o p l e

P a s t a c c o m p l i s h m e n t s o f t e a c h e r s g u a r a n t e e n o t h i n g a b o u t f u t u r e

s u c c e s s

I n t e r n a t i o n a l m a r k e t p l a c e f o r e n g i n e e r i n g s e r v i c e s i s d y n a m i c .

Need for Personal Mastery

6

Personal Mastery

section 04

Discipline of personal growth

and learning

Continually expanding

people’s ability to create the results in life they truly

seek

• continually clarifying what is important to us

• continually learning how to see current reality more clearly

7

Nine Characteristics

V i s i o n f o r T h e m s e l v e s High Energy Fa n a t i c

D i s c i p l i n e

Story Tel l ing

Tr u s t e d R e l a t i o n s h i p

L i f e l o n g L e a r n i n g

S i m p l i c i t y S y s t e m T h i n k i n g

Performance with

Purpose

• Have a very clear idea of what they believe they can become

• What they think they are capable of

• Visualize great outcomes for the lessons they taught

• Expect students to be inspired for life

• Set high expectations in all domains of student contribution

• Don’t be afraid to dream the impossible dream.

Educators just need to be constantly relating anything that they are actually doing to a bigger purpose.

Mathematics is weight training for the brain.

C o n s i s t e n c y w i t h l o n g t e r m g o a l s

D i s c i p l i n e i s n o t t h e s a m e a s m e a s u r e m e n t

C o n s i s t e n c y w i t h p e r f o r m a n c e s t a n d a r d s

D i s c i p l i n e i s n o t t h e s a m e a s r e g i m e n t a ti o n

C o n s i s t e n c y o f m e t h o d

D i s c i p l i n e i s n o t t h e s a m e a s h i e r a r c h i c a l o b e d i e n c e

C o n s i s t e n c y o v e r ti m e

D i s c i p l i n e i s n o t t h e s a m e a s a d h e r e n c e t o b u r e a u c r a ti c r u l e s

Fanatic Discipline

T r u e d i s c i p l i n e r e q u i r e s i n d e p e n d e n c e o f m i n d t o r e j e c t p r e s s u r e t o c o n fi r m i n w a y s i n c o m p a ti b l e w i t h v a l u e s , p e r f o r m a n c e s t a n d a r d s , a n d l o n g t e r m a s p i r a ti o n s .

T h e o n l y f o r m l e g i ti m a t e f o r m o f d i s c i p l i n e i s s e l f d i s c i p l i n e , h a v i n g t h e i n n e r w i l l t o d o w h a t e v e r i t t a k e s t o c r e a t e a g r e a t o u t c o m e , n o m a tt e r h o w d i ffi c u l t .

High energy give the impression of increase for all their followers.

Students perceive educators as being able to bring more to their lives.

Give the impression of increase routinely, without even being aware of it

Lifelong learning is an activity to fill

up the “competency gap” between

what you want and what is your

current competency level to achieve

what you want.

There is a need to learn, arises from a

“learning gap” between what is

known and what needs to be known

Self discipline

Comfort with repetitiveness

If required, comfort with being alone.

Trusted Relationship

H u m a n Re l a ti o n sThe ability to get along with and influence other people

Global currency is made of Relationships

Tr u s t

The key to success is your ability to earn trust.

People trust and choose to believe people they like

‘‘The more people trust you, the more they buy from you.’’

–David Ogilvy

Stories provide inspirationInspiration drives action

Part Entertainment Part Instruction

Stories cause Mental Simulation. Mental Simulation build Skills

17

System Thinking“Age of

Interdependence”

humankind have the capacity to create far more information than anyone can absorb

to foster far greater interdependence than anyone can manage

to accelerate change faster than anyone’s ability to keep pace.

Shift of mind from

seeing parts to seeing wholes

seeing people as helpless reactors to seeing them as active participants in shaping their reality

reacting to the present to creating future.

18

Simplicity

The process of prior itization i s the heart of s impl ic i ty.

“ F i n d i n g t h e

C o re .”

S i m p l i c i t y d o e s n ’ t m e a n d u m p i n g d o w n , i t m e a n s c h o o s i n g

ClassicBohrmodelofanatom– It’s like the solar system but on a microscopic level

Aone-sentenceideathat’ssufficientlyprofoundthatyoucouldspendalifetimelivinguptoit.

Conclusion

Why are educators teaching this stuff,

when students could easily learn this on the internet,

from books, through games etc.?

Conclusion Educators are an inspiration, students want something educators have got, students see educators in action, talented, and pick up the fact that they

believe in themselves, they work hard, they think differently, they simplify the complexity, they have great personal energy, they trust worthy, they are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce great results and they tell great stories...

No People can r ise above the level of i t s teachers

- C icero