Is Lifelong Learning Skill The Only Life-Lasting Skill Engineering Graduates Ever Need? : Teaching Lifelong Learning Skill In The Classroom

This paper will focus on our efforts to introduce lifelong learning skill into the classroom environment required by Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board CEAB. UPEI
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new curriculum course ENGN 334: Intro to Mechatronics in Fall 2015 was selected by author for this study. It provided the opportunity to develop an active style syllabus in which students were encouraged to proactively participate in developing their own weekly learning goals based on the proposed list of topics already published in the same syllabus. They were also required to submit weekly reflections on their learning achievements during in the preceding week. From their weekly submissions and subsequent reflections, we tried to answer if the students were setting realistic goals, assessed against SMART learning goals, and how the balance of the short and long term goals changed over the semester. It is therefore the objective of this paper to examine how effective it could be to promote realistic goal setting through professional skill development (PSD) intervention and proactive self-directed learning. A similar study, also by the author, was conducted the following year during UPEI course ENGN 326: Materials, Mechanics, and Manufacturing in Fall 2016. Comparative results will be presented and conclusions will be drawn in the same paper.