Empowering Professional Teaching in Engineering. John Heywood

classes what the outcome of an experiment should be. I prefer if they at least try to discover that for themselves.

      Finally, it has made me realize how difficult a lot of Junior Certificate scientific concepts are in general and how frustrating this subject must be for those who would certainly appear, as a result of this exercise, to spend much time in the dark where science is concerned. Perhaps this is the most important piece of insight that I gained and it has certainly given me food for thought.

Exhibit 3.6: Example of a third evaluation which is a continuation of the second evaluation shown in Exhibit 3.5.

3.4 TEACHING AS RESEARCH–AN APPROACH TO SCHOLARSHIP

      When the studies reported in this text were began in 1984 there were no texts that could be given to the students, moreover the approach was greatly influenced by my experience of engineering projects. This is no longer the case. Several texts have been written about teaching as research and classroom research on both sides of the Atlantic [3, 8, 9]. Two of the texts that have interested engineering educators have come from Patricia Cross and her colleagues Tom Angelo [10] and Mimi Steadman [11]. The first describes some fifty simple techniques for assessing what is going on the classroom. These are listed in the appendix. Many engineering educators use the “One minute Test.” The second is an advocacy of qualitative research in classrooms with practical examples. There is no one perfect way in achieving what is probably better called “the scholarship of teaching.”

      In practice changing or developing the curriculum, irrespective of the level in the education system, is a design activity which is very similar to planning a lesson.

      If I were to teach this concept again I would emphasize the non-examples more with weaker students. In order to do this I would use the idea of concept mapping as illustrated in the Howard reading. This is a process frequently used in science and would have proved extremely useful of the concept of the animal cell. A map of its place in the human system and a map of its place in the environment, including non-examples, such as rocks, within the environment, would possibly have given the class a much clearer picture to focus on.