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Teaching of structural engineering
Fundamental issues
Iain MacLeod
Dominant activities in21st century practice
Develop ideas
Investigate
Analyse risk Assessrequirements
Validate andoptimise processes
Verify and interpretoutcomes
Develop and evaluatedesign concepts
Make judgements
Write technicalreports
Work with determinate andnon-determinate processes
Acquire knowledge
Dominant activities for 20th
century engineering education
Do calculations
Write: essays, dissertations,lab reports
Learn abouttheories
Work with determinate
processes
Acquire knowledge
Culture:
A set of shared attitudes and values
Traditionalacademic
Traditionalengineering
Innovativeengineering
Why is the culture of learning forengineers so remote from that
ofpractice?
Misplaced academic elitism!
1840 First UK appointment to a chair of engineering(at Glasgow
University) - Lewis Gordon
1872 BSc in engineering science
established at Glasgow
1855 William Macquorn Rankineappointed to Glasgow chair
by supplying the student with that scientific
knowledge which he cannot well acquire in anoffice or workshop,
and avoiding anypretensions to give him that skill in the
conduct
of actual business which is to be gained bypractice alone -
Rankine
Appendix 5
Prof I A MacLeod
"Teaching of structural engineering - fundamental issues"
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Why is this science first principlefundamentally
unsatisfactory?
1. It inhibits the development oftacit knowledge
Knowledge and information
Information modes: speech, text, graphics, etc.
Knowledge - what the brain contains
Information- a representation ofknowledge outside the brain
Knowledge
In technological knowledge, the tacit component may belarger
than the codified (i.e. explicit) one. Gibbons et al.
Explicit knowledge - can be expressed asinformation
Tacit knowledge- cannot, or has not yet been,expressed as
information
Features of tacit knowledge
Intuition
Associativity
Understanding
Making judgements/decisions
Topics tend to be taught and examined as separateentities and
not integrated in project work
Missing opportunities for associativity
Engineering science tends to be taught independentlyof its use
in practice
Why is this science first principlefundamentally
unsatisfactory?
2. It inhibits the development of aholistic approach to
design
Holistic design: All features whichaffect the outcomes should
beconsidered
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Why is the science first principlefundamentally
unsatisfactory?
3. If you want to be good at doingsomething then the sooner you
start tolearn the better.
Explicit knowledge can be readilyassimilated. Good attitudes are
bestlearned at the earliest practical age. The style of 20
th century academic learning isnot conducive to developing the
ability to think.The distinction between education and
traininginhibits good learning.
Reality
Students are educated at university and trained inpractice
Conventional wisdom
Training - learning to follow procedures
Education Learning how to think
Students should be educated to ask questions abouteverything -
requirements, processes, outcomes
Basic principles
For example when doing calculations:
Are the calculations are? - validation
What can be learned from the results? - interpretation
Have the calculations been correctly implemented?
-verification
Cross section of axi-symmetric frame
Case study Challenge an outcome
ASCE Body of Knowledge Report
Basic vision: - that civil engineers will be at the
heart of the problems that face society in the21st century and
that their education andexperience need to be structured so as
todeliver the needed competence.
Requirement: based on output standards
Adopted: Blooms taxonomy - 3 domains:
Cognitive
Affective
Psychomotor
ASCE Body of Knowledge Report
Given the high and continuing interest inaffective development,
the BK2 Committee
recommends that this be explored, but not as partof the BOK2
Committees efforts. (P92)
Model refinement principle:If you are using a model in which a
feature whichdominates the behaviour is neglected, there maybe no
value in making refinements to themodelling of features of the
behaviour which areincluded in the model.
If affective issues are no less important thancognitive issues
then implementation of therecommendations of the report will fail
to deliver anysignificant improvement in professional standards
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A new balance is needed between academiclearning and learning to
operate in practice.
Balance
We need to identify the features of 21st centuryengineering
practice and set students on a coursetowards such competence.
Students need to learn to think like good engineers.
The philosophy of engineering education is basedon ill conceived
19th century principles.
