Paper

Integrating competence development into the curriculum
Engineering first year diagnostic and experience
Nhora O. Acuna
Direccion de Bienestar National University of Colombia Bogota, Colombia noacunap@bt.unal.edu.co

Hernando Diaz and Jhon J. Ramirez
Electrical Engineering Department National University of Colombia Bogota, Colombia, hdiazmo@unal.edu.co, jjramireze@unal.edu.co

Abstract—Aimed at developing academic and social competences in engineering students, a program has been designed that integrates this objective into the curriculum. Our experience with the development and implementation of such a program in first year engineering courses is described. Our results show that it is possible to reduce desertion and improve adaptation to college life and demands, amongengineering first year students, while improving social and academic skills and competences in an Introduction to Engineering course. Keywords-component; First Year Courses; competence and skill development; student desertion; college-life adaptation, coping.

Fear of failure, in general, and not finding a meaning in what they are doing have been often quoted by students in our study, as causes that candrive them into a strategy leading to changing their major or quitting studies as a coping strategy. Other studies have related the process of adapting to college with the ways of coping, concluding that this process depends on "the quality of the coping strategies" [6] and college becomes the context in which the students face different situations to which they must respond and act. In additionto the adaptation requirements that the entering students have to face, some additional demands are required from them. They are expected to develop and reinforce general and specific skills that will serve them to achieve balanced personal development and success. These competences, defined as "the integrated application of knowledge, skills, values, experience, contacts, external knowledgeresources and tools to solve a problem, to perform an activity, or to handle a situation" [7] have become so important that multiple initiatives have been put forward by governments, academia and society in general to create propitious environments leading to their strengthening [8 - 13]. Although the competences that are more or less relevant depend on the field in which a person develops his activity,for engineering students different studies have identified the skills that may be more important to ensure professional success: to cooperate effectively to find information most relevant to the problem at hand, to use creative and critical thinking to solve problems and make decisions, to communicate effectively both orally and in writing, project management, initiative and capacity forrisk-taking, adaptability and flexibility, time management and planning abilities and the ability to work autonomously, among some other [14 - 19]. The development of these competences has been attempted through diverse methodologies including: cooperative learning [18], projectbased learning [17], active learning [15], person centered learning [15, 16] and e-learning tools [19]. Results indicate thatcooperative instructor guided work may improve learning; individual based learning has successfully contributed to the development of team work and communication skills.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Engineering programs in Colombia (and, presumably, in other countries as well) are being forced by necessity to adjust their programs of study to better respond to the technology and labor marketrequirements. At the same time, the engineering student desertion rate is alarmingly high. This means that engineering schools invest a great deal of time and other resources to teach a number of students who never graduate. Our studies points to problems in adaptation to college life and requirements as one main cause of desertion. Analysis of first year engineering students attended at the psychology...