How to Learn to Think like a Skilled Engineer or Scientist and How to Teach It

This book presents a radical approach for better teaching that is firmly grounded in research on the nature and development of expertise in science and engineering. It is based on the author’s decades of experience in both teaching and research. The book argues for changing the focus of post-secondary education from the accumulation of knowledge to equipping learners to become better decision makers and problem solvers and then provides research-based principles for how to teach to achieve this outcome, including what is necessary to develop expertise and the nature of technical expertise. It explains why decision-making and related problem-solving are uniquely valuable aspects of technical expertise that are neglected in conventional instruction and then presents how to teach these skills through focused practice. The book describes in detail how a teacher designs good practice tasks for students. It then covers how to effectively implement such practice in the classroom. Finally, it provides practical advice about the other aspects of education, such as homework, exams, grading, and the use of artificial intelligence.

Carl Wieman is emeritus professor of physics and education at Stanford University, USA. He has been widely recognized for experimental research in both atomic physics (Nobel Prize, 2001, and other awards) and university science and engineering education (Carnegie University Professor of the Year, 2004; Yidan International Prize for Education Research, 2020). Prof. Wieman directed the Science Education Initiatives at the Universities of Colorado and British Columbia, which led to a large-scale change in the teaching of science. He also served as associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2010 to 2012. He founded PhET, which provides interactive simulations that are used nearly a million times a day to learn science, and he has authored the book Improving How Universities Teach Science. Porf. Wieman has more than 30 years of experience in teaching and doing research on teaching and learning of science and engineering.