The Research For The Practical Competence Of Undergraduate Engineering Students In Malaysia And The Influence Factors

Globalization and technology are rapidly developed,the function of engineering has undergone profound changes in society and the importance of engineering practice becomes increasingly outstanding.Practice is the key issue of engineering education transform from traditional "science paradigm" to modern "engineering paradigm".But currently the engineering education are too focus on using science paradigm to foster engineers,as a result of failure in the field of engineering education to clarify the relationship of engineering theory and engineering practice,confusing of internal differences between scientific education and professional education.Finally happened "valuing theory while despiring practice",the quality of engineers do not satisfied the employers,the quality of engineering education under rigorous tests.The research will focus on the basic problem of "how to develop student's practice competence",discuss the connotation of engineering practice competence and the effective way to help engineering major students to gain the competence.To be specific,the thesis intends to solve the following questions step by step.(1)Under the knowledge economy background,the philosophy and the inner concept of engineering being changed?(2)With the high speed development of economy and technology,what engineering practice competence framework should engineering students possess?(3)What factors that influence the formation of engineering practice competence of students?(4)What is the best model of developing engineering competence?Bringing the questions mentioned above,the thesis carries out a series of investigations from view of theory and positivism through ways of theoretical derivation,case study,content analysis,questionnaire research and data analysis and so on.The content of the questionnaire was constructed based on standards that required by ABET,FEANI,JABEE and so on.After discuss with teachers and students in engineering majors and pre-test,finalise the questionnaire with 27 questions.It consist of problem solving competence,design competence,application competence,communication competence,teamwork competence and understanding competence.These six competence being further combine become two main group with "hard skills" consist of problem solving competence,design competence and application competence;"soft skills" consist of communication competence,teamwork competence and understanding competence.However,for influence factors was created after literature reading and having interview with lecturers and engineering education professional in University Technology Mara and finalise with 16 questions.The influence factors can divided into 2 main groups with Internal Factors and Internal Factors.External factors including teaching and learning style,classroom environment,assessment methods and so on;internal factors consist of self-efficacy and engineering concept.The investigation was carried out in 8 universities in Malaysia which covered North region,Middle region and South region.Total number of students that take part in the survey was 1070,after the questionnaire surevey there was 12 students being selected to having further interview in order to find out more information that hidden behind.The main conclusions of originality concluded from the study are as follows:The formation of engineering practice competence is highly related to nation economy,the standard of technology and also the productivity.Among the result,the understanding competence have a high correspondence degree while the engineering design competence and communication competence have low one.From the result of analysis,internal factors become mediation medium between external factors and engineering practice competence.It remind educators to take more attention to students' psychology develop,always having "student centered learning".Finally,on the basis of the above discussion,the study scans the every key factors and put forward the strategic planning to enhance engineering student's practice competence.Malaysian engineering students feeling not satisfied with the "hard skills" that practice in university especially engineering design skill and problem solving skill.Students wish to get lecture from lecturers that rich with engineering experiences.Students also wish to increase the time frame in practical session.The curriculum of Malaysia's engineering education should be reformed in the light of holistic engineering,the goal of curriculum,the content of curriculum,the structure of curriculum,the way of teaching and learning,and the teaching method with self-efficacy philosophy.Engineering reform should achieve the balance between knowledge and ability,technology and non-technology.Malaysia university should foster students' practical ability and make it as the curriculum goal.The content of the curriculum should be based on the professional engineering ability framework,and reflect the characteristics of holistic engineering.The optimization of curriculum structure should readjust the relationship between the theory and practical element.The four types of curriculum structure could be selected,which are the integrated discipline,the integrated problem,the juxtaposition combination and the alternate combination.The research suggests the structure model of engineering curriculum in Malaysia,the six modules included:general education curriculum,natural science curriculum,engineering discipline curriculum,specific engineering field curriculum,engineering practice curriculum and capstone curriculum.This paper also provided six models of specific curriculum as well as the ways of teaching and learning as references for Malaysia engineering education reform.The contribution of the thesis mainly lies on the following items.(1)In the new engineering practice scene,the thesis has established the engineering practice competence framework accordance with Malaysia situation.(2)Studying and distinguishing the critical factors of engineering practice competence.(3)The research gives suggestions from different aspects including holistic engineering,the goal of curriculum,the content of curriculum,the structure of curriculum,the way of teaching and learning.