Speaker: Prof. Gary Bertoline | College of Technology | Purdue University

Coauthor:  Fatma Mili | Purdue University

There is agreement that something dramatic needs to be done to change Higher Education (HE) in general, the STEM disciplines in particular, and to better serve the needs of business and industry. Reports from various federal and professional bodies have been consistent in their conclusions about the nature of the shortcomings in HE, the substance of recommendations about what needs to happen to redress them, and the sense of urgency for a comprehensive, transformative, and immediate response. The key shortcomings are an outdated HE system that is no longer engaging students, an absence of demonstrable significant learning of the skills needed for the 21st century.  The key recommendations call for an overhaul of the curricula with a refocus on the skills needed in the 21st Century (creativity, innovation, collaboration, communication, knowledge fluency, and application), the generalized adoption of empirically validated teaching practices, and the stronger integration of teaching, liberal arts with technical topics, and research. The urgency to take bold comprehensive actions stems from the fact that the incremental approach has been tried for more than a decade and failed to deliver.

In response to the aforementioned opportunities Purdue’s College of Technology established an educational incubator that provides a safe environment for faculty and staff as well as key collaborators across the Purdue campus to effect targeted changes on a small scale, test them, refine them, and diffuse them to the rest of the College.  Education innovation and transformation will be accomplished by fundamentally changing the learning culture to prepare graduates who have acquired a deep liberal arts education with finely honed technical skills who are better prepared as innovators and “makers”, possessing both technical and professional expertise, an attitude of curiosity to learn and connect with others, and the courage to initiate and collaborate for the benefit of society.