Engineering curriculum development based on education theories

Abstract

Education theories stress not only societal context of education, but also educational philosophy, anthropology and psychology of learning. A formal curriculum theory, viz. Taba-Tyler rationale, has been proposed to incorporate philosophical, sociological, anthropological and psychological contexts of engineering education in the curriculum. The newly developed undergraduate curriculum at the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar is based on such education theories and has been presented as a case study. It has been demonstrated that the resulting curriculum can lead to unique courses that collectively bring out unique features such as core competency, strong connection to society, hands-on learning, creativity and innovation.