New Perspectives in Science Education

The changes in working life require new kind of skills from engineers. Alongside the traditional technical knowledge engineers now, need language and communication skills, the ability to negotiate, make connections, work in groups and adapt to changes. Being able to use these so-called meta skills strives for the employees having ability to adapt to constantly changing tasks. This gives engineering educators new challenges. Häme University of applied sciences Electrical and Automation degree programme aimed to improve these skills with a new teaching implementation. First year students were given a development project in which they studied basics of programming. Most important part was the method of implementation: small heterogeneous groups of 3 – 4 persons were formed. Every group had foreign and native students. Their education background also varied: some had high school degree, and some had graduated from vocational school. Different cultural and educational backgrounds created challenges for the students in their problem-solving situations, but also possibilities for new kind dialogue and learning. Teaching staff mainly acts as supervisor for the process and not as the knowledge sharing party. At the end of the course students were asked with a survey about their opinion how the new teaching implementation had improved their meta skills.

Keywords: Engineering Education, Meta skills, Pedagogy;