Developing Engineering Creativity in STEM Programs in Chinese Universities

This chapter aims to formulate a proposal of developing engineering creativity by problem- and project-based pedagogies in STEM programs in university education in China. It will introduce the increasing needs of engineering creativity in China, deepen understanding of the concept of creativity and engineering creativity, and provide a review of diverse models of problem- and project-based pedagogies in STEM programs. This further brings a discussion on how to develop engineering creativity in STEM programs in Chinese universities in order to overcome the barriers caused by traditional education system and culture. A series of strategies will be proposed including supporting student group work, designing interdisciplinary project, facilitating staff development, and developing creative communities, etc. Briefly, this chapter has the significance of developing engineering creativity in China both theoretically and practically, and also implies how to develop problem- and project-based pedagogies in STEM programs in other cultures around the world.

Fostering Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in Chinese Universities for a Creative Society

Recently, building a creative society has been a new vision of China that brings much discussion on how to foster creative talents and how to improve pedagogic models in Chinese universities. This chapter regards problem-based learning (PBL) as a promising strategy, and accordingly, the following questions will be discussed: 1) How can we understand the context of building a creative society in China? 2) What is a PBL model? 3) How can we understand history of PBL in a global context? 4) What is the theoretical root of PBL? and 5) For Chinese universities, what are boundaries to be broken for facilitating changes towards PBL that benefits to build a creative society? As both challenges and opportunities of fostering PBL in Chinese universities will be revealed, and appropriate strategies of reform will be suggested, this chapter has important significances of pedagogical innovation in Chinese context. In addition, it also implies universities in other cultures for improving innovation strategies in the future.

Facilitating Cross-Cultural Communication

The purpose of this chapter is twofold: 1) to make a brief interpretation of global dimension mainly focusing on the criterion for “international talents” and the requirements for the internationalization of higher education and 2) to address foreign affairs management in universities plays a vital role in promoting the internationalization of teaching, research, and administrative management, which can be regarded as a key diver to develop global dimension of innovation in higher education. Accordingly, this chapter proposes potential strategies for innovation of the foreign affairs management in universities, which has important significances in studies on internationalization of higher education, cross-culture communication, and foreign affairs management.

Experience and Reflection on PBL and Implementation of Interdisciplinary-Level PBL Plan

This chapter introduces the author's own teaching practices, teaching philosophy, and teaching challenges by traditional ways in Northeastern University of China at first. Then it presents the author's experience by participatory learning of PBL in UNESCO center of Aalborg University in Denmark. And the impact and guidance of the course on author's teaching philosophy, challenges, and skills are also given in this chapter. To apply PBL teaching methods, the author proposes future teaching plans with PBL. Moreover, design and implementation of interdisciplinary-level PBL plan is presented. And the implementation plan is expounded by six aspects: students, teaching staff, learning goals, contents, teaching and learning methods, and assessment. Finally, a case is put forward by the implementation plan.

An Elective Course-Based Model for the Change of Traditional Engineering Curriculum Towards PBL in a Chinese University

The chapter presents two PBL models for the change of traditional engineering curriculum based on traditional courses across colleges at the Northeastern University in China. A particular focus of the PBL model design is about interdisciplinarity. In this regard, the E2-iPBL model is developed based on general and major elective courses offered across many disciplines, whereas the JD-iPBL model is considered to develop PBL courses by further introducing compulsory major courses for a joint-degree training program. For practical implementations within the traditional engineering curriculum background, the change of the teacher's role for student-centered constructive learning is briefly summarized. Possible realizations and simple cases are illustrated. Finally, a comparative study of the E2-iPBL and JD-iPBL models is outlined.

PBL Implementation in Material Science and Engineering Education at Chinese Universities

Traditional university education with ordinary lectures is changing to more practical and actively student-centered learning systems. Materials science and engineering is originally the study of actual engineering materials but now becomes more interdisciplinary and sophisticated in the rapidly advancing industrial society. It is very necessary to cultivate the practical materials engineers and it also becomes a big challenge for Chinese universities to make a change. PBL is one of the potential approaches for Chinese universities. This chapter describes PBL theories, discusses PBL principles, PBL models, and also some PBL experiences at Aalborg University. In addition, this chapter exposes how PBL could be applied to materials science and engineering education in Chinese universities, and a case of PBL implementation has been given to show the process of transformation from traditional education at Chinese universities to PBL in the materials science and engineering field.

Design of Crowd Creative Collaborative Education Model Based on PBL

The global information technology revolution puts forward the following requirements for higher education: education mode transforms from experience education to overall education; education mechanism transforms from traditional management to comprehensive governance; the educational goal transfers from the traditional knowledge to the ability training. In such a macro educational background, the structural contradictions in China's higher education have triggered the supply-side reform of education. The implementation of this reform to Northeastern University requires us to vigorously promote the excellent education action plan in view of the current teaching reality and local difficulties in Northeastern University to change the logic of unilateral teaching into the logic of co-creating education. Based on comprehensive learning of PBL education paradigm, the author of this chapter, based on his own teaching practice and reflection of educational philosophy, puts forward the collaborative education mode of crowd innovation and gives the basic framework of this model. On this basis, specific cases and suggestions are given.

The Change Towards PBL

This chapter proposes the design of course groups PBL at program level for students from the BSc. programs of Robot Engineering (RE) at Northeastern University (NEU), China. The overall courses are divided into four groups throughout Grades 1 to 4. In this chapter, the authors provide background information about student cultivation and discipline construction in RE, and then they discuss correlation of characteristics between PBL and RE program, which indicates the reasons for applying PBL in RE. Finally, they introduce the detailed design of course groups.

Fostering Practical Developers in Computer Science Classrooms

Real-life software development requires practical developers. This chapter discusses the challenges put by real-life software development on computer science education of modern universities, and how to face these challenges by changing traditional teaching and learning to a PBL-based approach. Based on a literature review on PBL theories, methods and tools, and observations made in classrooms and group rooms at Aalborg University, this chapter discusses possible aspects to consider when changing traditional computer science classrooms. A case is then used to demonstrate the process of changing traditional teaching and learning of a computer science course named Visual Programming and Applications to a PBL-based approach.

Rethinking Environmental Education

This chapter brings a participatory learning experience on PBL at Aalborg University in Denmark. Based on the inherent wholeness of the human-nature ecosystem, interdisciplinary, sustainability-oriented teaching philosophies in environmental education endeavor for the appeal of more concern the value of life, aiming at promoting greater sensitivity to critical thinking, individual happiness, and social responsibility. Problem-based learning may be an effective way to realize the action competence of students by solving real problems and adjusting their behavior and finally to compass transformative learning and lifelong learning.