Focusing on communication skills in engineering education

In this: publication
By this: publisher
In this Subject: Education
By this author: Jennings, Alan ;&nbsp; Ferguson, J.D.

Authors: Jennings, Alan; Ferguson, J.D.

Source: Studies in Higher Education, Volume 20, Number 3, October 1995 , pp. 305-314(10)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

The development of communication skills is now considered to be a desirable feature of engineering undergraduate courses. However, to convert what is desirable into reality requires finding space in an already overcrowded syllabus. The solution proposed in this paper is to use the development of communication skills as the focus for active learning assignments relevant to the particular engineering discipline being studied. A ‘Learning from Disasters ring

s exercise and two mock public inquiries recently held in the Civil Engineering Deparment at Queen's University, Belfast (QUB) are illustrations of how this may be achieved and of the benefits to be gained.