Preparing For Abet 2000: Assessment At The Classroom Level

The nature of the classroom experience has recently regained recognition as one of the most significant factors influencing college students’ cognitive and affective development. While knowledge of the role of classroom experiences is extensive in general education (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991), the influences of these experiences among engineering students is as yet little understood. The absence of such information presents colleges and schools of engineering with major problems. Industry and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) are bringing increasing pressure on engineering schools to produce graduates who are prepared to engage in unstructured problem solving and to work in groups. ABET is also moving to an assessment-based reaccreditation review process, requiring institutions to produce evidence that their programs “prepare graduates for the practice of engineering at a professional level” (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, 1997, p. 41).