How to develop generic skills for engineering students in Hong Kong Higher Education?

Abstract

As the world moves towards knowledge-based economies, increased emphasis is being placed on graduates’ acquisition of generic skills competency along their disciplinary knowledge. The inclusion of generic skills development into the accreditation criteria of accreditation bodies highlights the importance of generic skills development in engineering education. A mixed method study conducted in Hong Kong with a representative sample of over 1700 engineering undergraduate students from three research-intensive universities found that majority of the engineering students believe that generic skills are important and are better developed through extra-curricular and out-of-class activities such as internship, community service-learning and hall education. Widely supported in the higher education literature is that students’ perception of the learning context and their approaches to learning can influence student learning outcomes (Prosser & Trigwell, 1999; Lizzio, Wilson, & Simons, 2002). While deep approach to learning is found to be related to high quality learning outcomes in discipline knowledge context (Trigwell & Prosser, 1991), the extent to which the approaches of deep, surface and strategic learning can be applied to generic skills development as a learning outcome is questionable. By introducing a framework developed based on Prosser and Trigwell’s 3P model (1999) and Yan and Kember’s (2004) concept of “avoider” and “engager” behavior in learning activities, this paper aims to offer another perspective to student approaches to learning and student engagement in the development of generic skills, apart from the well-known deep and surface approaches.