Research On The Curriculum Structure Of Master Of Engineering In Local Colleges And Universities In China

As the main force of training high-level and practice-oriented engineering talents,the postgraduate program of Master of Engineering plays an important role in the national strategic development and technological innovation and progress in the new era.In particular,it has been greatly advanced with the full-time program of Master of Engineering set up since 2009.However,the overall training quality of this program cannot meet the demands of the engineering industry and enterprises and the weak practical ability of the trainees has been a “short slab” restraining the training quality of the Master of Engineering program.This problem is more prominent for the local universities which are relatively weak in their overall training power.As we all know,curriculum is the continuation and embodiment of educational theories in practice and an important carrier of attaining the goals of talent training.In any educational reform,the educational concept,training mode and talent training goals will eventually turn to the curriculum.As a system,curriculum is the unity of structure and function with the former determining and supporting the latter.Curriculum structure has the endogenously restrictive and normative effect on the whole curriculum system.Actually,all those course-related problems in the Master of Engineering program can be,to a large extent,attributed to the poor curriculum structure.The thesis maintains that returning to “engineering logic” is a reasonable choice to improve the curriculum structure of the Master of Engineering program,which originally is the very product of the notion of “returning to engineering.” The embedded gene of “engineering” determines that the curriculum structure of the Master of Engineering program should follow the “engineering logic” rather than being under the dominance of the “discipline logic.”In order to further explore and reveal the nature of the curriculum structure of the Master of Engineering program,this thesis discusses,first and foremost,the ontological foundation of its formation,the epistemological foundation of its analysis,and the methodological foundation of its optimization.It points out that the “unity of knowledge and practice” is the inherent requirement of the core of engineering in the curriculum structure.It also constructs an overall Master of Engineering curriculum structure analysis framework integrating “value analysis” and “technology analysis,” emphasizing that the optimization of the curriculum structure will not only enhance the internal order and the ability for orderly change of the curriculum but also highlight its purposefulness.Secondly,taking the field of chemical engineering as an example,this thesis explores the status quo and existing problems of the curriculum structure of the Master of Engineering program in local universities and points out that the precedence of discipline logic directly leads to the absence of “engineering feature” in the curriculum structure,resulting in the mismatch between the overall curriculum function and the demands of talent training,which is the crux of the curriculum structure problems in the Master of Engineering programs of the local universities.Thirdly,taking the case of the curriculum structure reform of the Master of Engineering program in Y University,the thesis summarizes its successful experience of the “double-helix & modularization” curriculum structure reform in the chemical engineering program in three aspects:(1)adopting the view of “broad engineering” in setting up its curriculum goals to highlight the core characteristics of engineering talent training;(2)optimizing the course sequence setting to meet the double requirements of“learning” and “practicing”;(3)promoting the integration of courses by adhering to the main line of engineering practice.To sum up,it is maintained that the key to the curriculum structure optimization is to take the place of “discipline logic” with “engineering logic”,it not only helps to achieve the balance and unity of “learning” and “practicing” in the overall curriculum structure,but also helps to meet the actual learning and individual needs of students as an“engineering man”.On this basis,three suggestions are offered to optimize the curriculum structure of master of Engineering in local universities:(1)in the aspect of strengthening the purposefulness for the course structure of Master of Engineering,balancing the curriculum goal orientation in behavior,productivity and performance with the“student-centered unity of knowledge and practice” and emphasizing students’ sense of presence as an “engineering man” in their Master of Engineering education by means of integrating the separated activities of learning and practicing into a curriculum system more in line with the nature of engineering and the law of students’ engineering cognition;and balancing the curriculum content orientations,that is,curriculum content centering on teaching materials,learning activities and learning experience,with the “field of integrated engineering knowledge based on learning experience” and emphasizing the core of engineering in the curriculum content and taking the acquisition of engineering knowledge as the main line by converting the single-dimension and static “knowledge-imparting container” dominated by learning into a comprehensive and dynamic “integrated field” of engineering knowledge featuring the interaction between “learning” and “practicing”;(2)in the aspect of strengthening the orderliness for the course structure of Master of Engineering,formulating the schedule structure of the curriculum systematically to promote the organic confluence of “learning” and “practice” and advising the “hybrid”framework of curriculum time relations to promote the unity of knowledge and practice in the whole curriculum;and constituting a progressive curriculum structure to cater to the growing logic of Master of Engineering and regarding students as the “formed” people based on the rules of learners’ engineering cognition and integrating the declarative knowledge,the process knowledge and the strategic knowledge based on a gradual knowledge supply mode suitable for the formation of students’ engineering thinking;(3)in the aspect of strengthening the order change capability for the course structure of the Master of Engineering,enhancing the proportion of practice-oriented courses and increasing the supply of practical knowledge;and referencing to the successful experience of the case school,the ideal credit ratio of practical courses to the oretical courses is about1:2;and integrated curriculum combination mode is adopted to enhance the integration effect between courses,and taking full account of the local enterprises’ demand for the versatile ability of “multi responsibility engineers” by implement the idea of “all round integration” in curriculum combination;and formatting a wide area of engineering knowledge integration field through further deepening school enterprise cooperation.