A Conference proceeding
The need for solid engineering and for engineers that can engineer hasn´t changed in the past 100 years. What has, however, become more and more evident is that todays, and more so tomorrow´s engineers need to be equipped with skills that make them efficient and productive in a the complex environment of todays societal challenges.
Challenge-driven education (CDE) is aimed for students as well as for individuals who are focusing on, among other things, to their problem solving and team collaboration skills. These skills are widely perceived as crucial for solving the complex and wicked engineering challenges that the industry and societies face. In the very core of CDE is the aim of going through the learning cycles while at the same time serving the global society. CDE aims to put the best and the brightest to work on the problems most in need of solution1. This makes the CDE model also both lucrative and challenging for the educator. The traditional curricula of universities do not support the CDE model throughout the degree structure. Challenge driven courses with early phase project courses are seen to support the students learning by confronting them with different knowledge gaps, mental models and conceptual understanding from the very beginning. In authentic projects the students cannot refer to the equations they have just learned in their mathematics or physics class. The uncertainty and ambiguity that arises in the real-life project work is an identification process between the interface of knowledge and the need for more knowledge. The ability to improve competence is strengthened by the fact that students are working in an authentic, open-ended and real-life situation where they need to observe, identify, design and solve problems.
Sida of Sweden