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IONITA, Ion1 & VATACHI, Nicusor2
47 Domneasca Street, 6200 Galati Romania, Lower Danube University, Fax 036-461353
1 iionita@tmt.ugal.ro
2 nvatachi@tmt.ugal.ro
Abstract:
The paper expresses the thoughts of the two mechanical engineers professors about the quality of the knowledge transfer to the students.
There are presented two main different ways of academic staff activity and existence.
In one of them the professor is taking over the information and the ideas from different books and journals and is transferring them to the students in a form more or less developed.
The second way is practiced by those specialists who prefer mainly a creative research activity, the educational act of forming the future engineers being based not only on the knowledge achieved from documentation. They also share with the students their own research experiences, their personal challenge achievements and failures.
Furthermore there are presented the main characteristics of the university people and the desired politics of the government related to educational process.
The efficiency of any human activity must not argue, it is always wanted; in this paper we would like to present some opinions not so new but quite difficult to apply. It is about the efficiency of the engineering educational process, about the quality of the knowledge transfer from professor to student and about the government politics related to engineer's forming process.
The knowledge of a course curricula can be taught to student by different ways, among which two of them seem to be essential (fig.1):
(a) The professor taking over the information and the ideas from different books and journals and transferring them to the students in a form more or less developed (arrow C6). A professor as instructed as possible, well-read, a professor of wide reading is a necessary condition of any educational process, but let us notice that this way the professor transmits to the students notions he red (arrow A1) and repeats them after their processing in his own mind. Such instruction mode consists of information transfer from source-the books and journals to beneficiary-the student, by intermediary-the professor. This last one shoulders him the task to facilitate this transfer, collecting the information and data from many books and journals. In this purpose a monographic processing is used so that the students can understand easier the ideas of course curricula.
For this instruction procedure we must admit that there might be at few students who can take over from books and journals and monographically process the notions of the course (arrow C1); sometimes, this can be done in a way even superior to the one carried out by the professor. In other words, if we are speaking only about the taking over of the information from the books and journals and their monographic processing, a professor is useful for many students, but less for the best of them.
To contribute at the education of all students, including the best of them, the professor has to do more than monographic processing of what the others achieved and of what he red in books and journals. However, we must admit that many of us, the university people, are doing more or less in the above mentioned mode.
Can we avoid this drawback; can we do more to improve the quality of the knowledge transfer? We think we can do it, if we will have more credibility in front of the students, sometimes speaking at least about our own scientific experience. In the following it is presented this attitude.
b) Another way to approach the educational act of forming future engineers is practiced by those specialists who prefer mainly a creative research activity (arrow B1), the educational act (arrow C6) being based not only on the knowledge achieved from documentation (arrow B4). These people are the ones who share with the students their own research experience (arrow B1), their personal challenges, achievements and failures.
Of course, nobody of us can be experienced in all the problems from course curricula, but it is very important that in front of the students to be as professor a person with a scientific stature, a person more or less well known for his scientific achievements, maybe only one, single achievement, but important and recognized.
This procedure, much more efficient and more attractive, requires from the professor not only qualities of scientific researcher. In other words, no every scientific researcher can be a good teacher. In the section 4 we will develop furthermore these ideas.
Another aspect of engineering educational process we are concerned is the way the future engineers are trained for their future technical activity. We have to underline that the future specialist must not to be a kind of library in which are deposited many information. An engineer has to be a specialist able to solve the technical problems of the different systems he is meeting in his activity, to prove a creative attitude in all his professional life. For this, the preparation of the students must not to appeal so much to their memorizing capacity, much more attention we think must be granted related to the ability of the students to solve the different problems met in the design of the technical systems.
So, much more homework and individual projects, less activities and exams of memorizing. Also it is preferable to mark the students while they are working, while they are solving different problems than to mark them verifying their memorizing ability.
An aspect of the students engineering education for which the academic staff did not answer satisfactory yet is so called "practice in production". In the former engineering educational Romanian system, this practice in production was assured three weeks per year, in summer time, in the state companies that were obliged to assure conditions of carrying out this educational activity. Now, this obligation can not be assumed by private companies, so the question is more and more difficult to solve.
We know that we must to prepare the fresh engineer to be able to enter directly and immediately in the practical problems of an industrial company. But for this the future engineers needs some practice while he is still student. These partially opposite requirements are not so easy to satisfy simultaneously, that is creating great difficulties in the first years of engineering hiring. It remains a task of educational engineering process to diminish these difficulties of the engineers' life beginning.
So that the educational act of forming a specialist could be of high quality, a teacher must have and prove solid pedagogy (arrow C5) and psychology (arrow C4) knowledge. Also, he has to prove real general knowledge (arrow C2). However, above all, the professor must be a personal example for student (arrow C3), to be characterized by moral qualities, among which generosity, abnegation, and tactfulness have to stand on the forefront.
Something about the relations between teacher and his students. That educational act has efficiency, the teacher must not speak condescendingly (fig.3) only to the students, and not being interested in the mode his students are receiving those presented. The lesson must be interactive (fig.4); the connection between teacher and the students have to be double, in the both directions, the students being able to address to professor their questions, their concerns about the exposed theme. This way the teacher is watching how the students are receiving those exposed and can control the lesson, according to the interest with which the listeners pick it up.
To be possible the participation of the academic staff in the scientific research activity, the policy of the national education ministries and of government must stimulate the presence of the university people in company board of directors or as technical advisers for different companies.
We see therefore that the quality level of knowledge transfer from professor to student is much linked with the academic staff quality. But the academic staff forming is an act of great responsibility, management of that is part of the national policy of the government. National education ministry applies this last one.
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