| Now we are in an era of new round of scientific and technological change along with the industrial revolution.The huge transformation is breaking the boundaries between the original industries,which accelerating the integration of industries and disciplines.Therefore,Engineering education in a way has being reshaped by that kind of transformation,contributing to engineering problems more comprehensive and more complicated.To settle the issue,engineering education is required to follow the tendency by transforming old pedagogical idea to“grand engineering”,a new idea of based on comprehensive engineering problems analysis as well as creative disciplines integration for engineering problems solving.This paper,researching on engineering students of higer education,dedicated to study the interdisciplinary competence of engineering students under the new engineering reform.The concept of interdisciplinary competence need to be clarified.It refers to the ability to span and integrate different disciplines to solve complex problems which is hard for a single discipline to fix.This paper based on the analysis of the new engineering requirements of skills for engineering students as well as the current standards of engineering students’ training,has been building a framework of Interdisciplinary Competence of Engineering College(ICEC),which consists of four kinds of competence: multi-dimensional analysis competence,critical thinking competence,teamwork competence and knowledge integration competence.After that,this paper analyses each dimension of interdisciplinary competence in detail,meanwhile,a questionnaire named "Interdisciplinary Competence of Engineering College in the Context of New Engineering" as well as a scale named "Influencing Factors of Interdisciplinary Competence of Engineering College in the Context of New Engineering" are designed and analyzed.The study shows four conclusions in terms of the interdisciplinary competence of engineering college.First,engineering college students have strong teamwork competence,followed by multi-dimensional analysis competence and critical thinking competence,but their knowledge integration competence is very poor.Second,engineering college students of different genders present significant differences in critical thinking competence,and there are no obvious differences in multi-dimensional analysis competence,teamwork competence and knowledge integration competence.Third,engineering college students of different grades show great distinctions in multidimensional analysis competence,but the differences on competence of critical thinking,teamwork and knowledge integration are not obvious.Fourth,engineering college students with second degree compared with students who just have one degree present significant differences in the ability of critical thinking,team integration,and knowledge integration,and no significant differences in multi-dimensional analysis ability have been observed in this study.Similarly,there are four findings regarding the influencing factors of he interdisciplinary competence of engineering college.First,the factors vary from individuals to teachers,as well as curriculum settings,in a way,all have different significant impact on interdisciplinary competence.Second,individual factors have a positive correlation on the competence of critical thinking,teamwork,and knowledge integration.Third,teacher factors show a obvious positive correlation with all four dimensions of interdisciplinary competence.Fourth,the factors of curriculum settings which show positive correlation cover all four dimensions as well.In order to improve the interdisciplinary competence of engineering students and promote the further development of the new engineering reform,according to the above results,this paper puts forward some suggestions on the improvement of interdisciplinary ability from three levels :(1)the country should improve the degree system and adjust majors dynamically according to different times;(2)Colleges and universities should establish the concept of interdisciplinary education and explore the mode of interdisciplinary education;(3)Individuals break through the thinking of single subject and cultivate interdisciplinary ability... |
