EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES AND MODELS FOR TEACHING THINKING SKILLS AND CAPITALIZING DEEP UNDERSTANDING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

The article introduces effective teaching strategies and models suitable for teaching engineering, implemented at Estonian Centre for Engineering Pedagogy. Strategies are general approaches to instruction, used to meet a range of learning objectives: skilled questioning, clear communication, organizing lessons, effective feedback, starting lessons with a review and ending with closure, applicable in all teaching situations. Models are specific approaches to instruction having four characteristics: they help students acquire deep understanding and develop critical thinking abilities; they include a series of specific steps intended to reach the objectives; they are grounded in learning theory; they are supported by motivation theory. Introduced models are designed to capitalize deep understanding and critical thinking in teaching engineering. Accordingly students will be able to explain, find evidence and examples, generalise, apply, analogise and represent a topic in a new way. At least four different kinds of knowledge are essential for expert teaching: knowledge of content; pedagogical content knowledge; general pedagogical knowledge; and knowledge of learners and learning. The goal of the article is to help engineering teachers acquire knowledge in each of these areas.