Teaching skills versus learning to learn - A more balanced approach to higher education is needed

摘要

Controversy has been raging for some time regarding the quality of graduates from technical colleges. The typical lament is that managers have to teach new employees (recent graduates) everything about how to conduct a particular test. In the case of vibration testing for example, few new graduates have a clue about how to turn on most vibration machines, fixture the unit under test (UUT) to the vibration table, collect usable data, and do this all in a safe and viable manner. The purpose of this article is to examine the current state of philosophy about technically based education at degree-granting institutions in the United States, examine how the current philosophy of education has evolved, and finally to make some recommendations about how a better system might be developed.