Next Generation Principles For Enhancing Student Learning

The National Science Foundation recently funded the proposal "Statics: The next generation. "This project incorporates proven pedagogical findings to improve teaching of statics, specifically, and engineering courses in general. Using past and current research, twelve "Next Generation (NG) Principles" are proposed for enhancing student learning. These principles include incorporating active cooperative learning, service learning, writing assignments, technology, high standards of learning and teaching, and a learning support system for students. These principles are being used as a basis for teaching two sections of statics at North Dakota State University (50 and 100 student enrollments) and one section of 22 students at Arizona State University East during the fall semester of 1999. This paper describes the NG principles, their implementation in these statics sections, and initial results. The fundamental intent in using NG principles is to enable high-performance student learning and encourage faculty and students to be active partners in acquiring, constructing, and transforming knowledge.