(331)STUDENTS BECOME EXPERTS: CHANGING THE ROLES IN THE LEARNING PROCESS

摘要

In the global world with dramatically fast changing needs and resources it is hard to predict with anydegree of certainty what our society will look like in the future. That is why the part of engineeringuniversities' mission becomes to educate new generation of engineers, who will be able to make asignificant contribution to sustainable society development ten, twenty or forty years into the future.They should acquire a number of key professional and generic competencies, necessary tosuccessfully meet the challenges regardless of what the future holds. Such requirements are alreadyincluded to different extent in EUR-ACE Framework Standards, Washington Accord GraduateAttributes and Professional Competency Profiles, CDIO Syllabus and Federal state educationalstandards of RF.High quality professional training in accordance with the principles of outcome-based approachdepends on the learning outcomes graduates are expected to achieve upon graduation from theeducational program. However, the definition of a set of core competencies is just one of the stepsthat has to be fulfilled, but not enough for successful achievement of intended learning outcomes bythe students. The paper considers the role of teaching and learning methods in designing andimplementing of engineering educational programs.Experience of Russian universities shows that learning and teaching methods required to ensureachievement of intended learning outcomes are addressed only at the final stage of educationalprogram design, after the curriculum structure and academic hours for each discipline are defined.This indicates a sequence of actions confirming the priority of curricula for specific disciplines overteaching methods in educational programs implementation. It also leads to domination of knowledgebasedapproach over the hands-on active approach in future engineers' competence development.The real implementation of interactive training often faces difficulties and contradicts the wayeducational process is planned. It remains committed to traditional teaching methods and forms ofeducational activities. Due to this fact, there is a lack of holistic approach in integrating problem-basedlearning methods in the real educational process. Unfortunately, popular in technical universitiestraditional approach is focused on lesson training system, and requires from students ability to listenand write down and does not provide one of the main conditions of motivation for learning -engagement of each student in the learning process.The paper introduces a new method of learning, which represents a set of generally known, butsystematically and purposefully organized teaching and learning methods corresponding to theprinciples of problem-based approach. The proposed learning method is delivered in the form ofseminar, where participants (students)act as experts in particular filed of knowledge and are invited togradually investigate (analyse)the problem and suggest solutions. Therefore, this method is called"Expert Seminar". Such approach requires active work from each participant who feels responsibilityand trust given to him/her as an expert. This helps to ensure involvement of all students in theeducational process.A new method of interactive problem-based learning that meets the principles of engagement,interactivity, independence and efficiency is presented in the paper.