Technical training must constantly adapt to the changes and expectations of technology and the environment, and at the same time strive to increase the efficiency of higher education – experts emphasized at the professional methodology conference organized at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Debrecen. According to the participants, education should be organized around specific technical topics and problems, writes unideb.hu.
In addition to local educators, representatives of the partner universities, including mainly the University of Miskolc, participated in the event organized by the Department of Technical Basic Subjects of the University of Debrecen Faculty of Engineering. A total of 12 lectures were given at Wednesday’s meeting, which mainly talked about new educational methods that can be used in technical training, the problems that arise in connection with them, and the good practices that have already been tried.
At the Technical Faculty of the University of Debrecen, we strive to encourage students to solve practical technical problems proposed by engineering departments and to learn through them, which we call problem-based learning, instead of a dry discussion of theory. Teaching the theory at an appropriate level is essential, but the depth of this must be adapted to the level of activity the future engineers will be engaged in: for example, technicians, plant engineers, design engineers or engineering scientists
– said Imre Kocsis, deputy academic dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
He explained that problem-based learning means that mathematical topics are introduced by first showing students the technical problems where they need to apply them and discussing them in a way that is most useful for the applications. In the case of some special topics, this can be solved, for example, by teaching mathematical knowledge in the context of a technical subject.
We must constantly think about what, when and how to teach, on the one hand, because we can never find perfect methods, and on the other hand, because the environment is changing. The latter forces us to think differently. The tools we are used to often determine our way of thinking and our teaching methods. The things that were used ten or twenty years ago are not necessarily good anymore
– the deputy dean opined.
Regarding the spread of applications using artificial intelligence, Imre Kocsis stated that they significantly transform the teacher-student relationship.
Instead of imparting information, the task of teachers will increasingly be to coordinate the acquisition of knowledge, to teach critical thinking and learning
– he said.
Balázs Kulcsár, associate professor at the Faculty of Engineering, warned that although applications based on artificial intelligence and chatbots in many cases provide very serious help in solving professional problems, they can also be dangerous for engineering students in the sense that they can kill creativity and better results as an easily available solution striving to achieve, the competition.
