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Full-Text Articles in Education

Work In Progress - A Provisional Competency Assessment System, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra, Jonathan Chambers, Ellen Cooney, Kristen Dorsey, John Geddes, Gill Pratt, Kathryn Rivard, Ann Schaffner, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Stephen Westwood, Yevgeniya Zastavker Jul 2012

Work In Progress - A Provisional Competency Assessment System, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra, Jonathan Chambers, Ellen Cooney, Kristen Dorsey, John Geddes, Gill Pratt, Kathryn Rivard, Ann Schaffner, Lynn Stein, Jonathan Stolk, Stephen Westwood, Yevgeniya Zastavker

Mark Somerville

Over the last two years Olin College has been defining and implementing a provisional system to develop and assess student competency levels. The system particularly emphasizes the importance of creating a community of practice that includes not only faculty but also staff and students. In this paper we provide an overview of the design process, and comment on the results of our first year of implementing the system.


Drowning In Method, Thirsty For Values: A Call For Cultural Inquiry, Jonathan Stolk, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra Jul 2012

Drowning In Method, Thirsty For Values: A Call For Cultural Inquiry, Jonathan Stolk, Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra

Mark Somerville

A decade or more has passed since publication of most calls for reform in engineering education. In the ensuing time, there has been significant work on the design, implementation, and transferability of appropriate methodsand techniques - accompanied by, in most cases, little discussion of the values and beliefs of the people involved. But many theories of change rely on a fundamental shift in human beliefs and values, and purport that institutionalization of methods is impossible without this shift. Given this, now may be a reasonable time to re-visit the questions: What are the values of people involved in engineering education, …