College Teaching Innovation from the Perspective of Sustainable Development: The Construction and Twelve-Year Practice of the 2P3E4R System
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Research
3. Basic Information of the Civil Engineering Construction Course
3.1. Main Content
3.2. Main Objectives
- (1)
- Knowledge objective. Students are able to use the basic principles of civil-engineering construction to select construction methods suitable for project characteristics and innovate construction techniques; in addition, they can use new network-planning techniques and optimization theories to creatively design the construction organization of engineering projects.
- (2)
- Ability objective. Students shall have the ability to use the theoretical knowledge of construction to solve technical problems encountered in the project construction site, have the ability to use information management tools for construction organization and have the ability to continuously innovate in engineering construction.
- (3)
- Emotional value objective. Students shall have a healthy psychological quality and a sense of social responsibility, have excellent moral quality in work and life, and can carry forward the ultimate craftsman spirit in construction technology and management [8].
3.3. Course Development and Effectiveness
4. Analysis of Teaching Pain Points and Countermeasures
4.1. Teaching Pain Points
- (1)
- Teaching mode. The construction technology of civil engineering is relatively abstract and the industry is developing rapidly. There is a lag in the integration of cutting-edge technologies into classroom teaching. The traditional teaching mode is insufficient in terms of personalization and innovation, and cannot well support the new engineering goal of cultivating students’ ability to solve complex engineering problems.
- (2)
- Students’ active-learning ability. Students are mostly passive learners and lack the ability to effectively use all-media three-dimensional teaching resources for active learning, and their self-improvement ability needs to be strengthened.
- (3)
- Students’ engineering-thinking ability. Due to a lack of synergy between out-of-class practice and in-class teaching, students’ actual perception of the construction process is insufficient and their practical ability is weak. Therefore, students’ engineering-thinking ability needs to be further strengthened.
4.2. Countermeasure Analysis
- (1)
- A virtual simulation platform and construction-site learning can help to solve the problem of students’ weak practical ability.
- (2)
- We help students to form a good knowledge system and professional ethics and a craftsman spirit through activities such as industry elites entering the classroom, team learning, and open assignments.
- (3)
- Through project studies, submitting BIM technical team tasks and other activities, students will have the ability to innovate in civil-engineering construction technology and management.
5. Innovative Thinking and Teaching Practice
5.1. Innovative Thinking
5.2. Teaching Practice
5.2.1. Dual Platforms
5.2.2. Three Educations
- (1)
- Production-site education. In order to improve students’ awareness and understanding of construction production sites, students will go deep into construction sites and have zero-distance contact with engineering, which will effectively stimulate students’ interest in learning and cultivate their ability to explore. Table 1 shows the main practical-education foundations of the course and the specific content of the corresponding on-site learning.
- (2)
- Classroom learning education. On the basis of the traditional classroom teaching mode, a series of innovative learning methods were added. The traditional classroom mode is mainly based on simple PPT explanations, blackboard problem solving and teaching aids’ display. To the innovative classrooms have been added rich learning methods such as group puzzle practice, whole-class interactive lectures, and virtual simulations, allowing students to improve classroom-learning enthusiasm, help students to vividly imagine to realize the teaching content, stimulate students’ interest in learning, cultivate students’ team spirit, and improve students’ innovative ability, practical ability and problem-solving ability [10]. In the whole-class interactive lecture, mainly both student–student interaction and teacher–student interaction are adopted. Student–student interaction is dominated by group discussions, group reports and mutual evaluations between groups. It mainly cultivates students’ interactive learning and self-solving abilities of difficulties and puzzles, and trains students’ active discussion and communication skills. Teacher–student interaction is mainly based on classroom discussions, classroom guidance and online communication. Through classroom communication, teachers can quickly understand students’ learning difficulties, and effectively solve students’ problems through detailed guidance. Online communication mainly solves students’ learning problems after class. Students put forward questions online, other students can discuss them, and teachers give guidance, which adds a variety of learning paths for students in their spare time, increases the communication between teachers and students, and cultivates strong teacher–student friendship.
- (3)
- Mental-health education. Based on the above requirements of mental-health education, this course actively pays attention to the mental-health education of students, added a large number of mental-health education elements in classroom teaching, and interspersed multiple mental-health evaluation assessments in the course teaching throughout the semester. At the same time, teachers are required to strengthen and improve their own mental-health knowledge and professional ability, encourage students to solve problems creatively, cultivate students’ enthusiasm for active learning, and form a positive psychological state. In the whole process of course teaching, teachers should adhere to the organic integration of mental-health education and course knowledge, so that students are always synchronized with practice. Mental-health education can not only help students develop healthy psychology, but also enable students to have noble morals and correct values [24].
5.2.3. Four Reports
- (1)
- Open assignment report. It accounts for 15%, a total of four times. In view of practical engineering problems, on the basis of mastering basic knowledge, students are required to consult relevant literature and exemplify an in-depth understanding of complex engineering problems and cutting-edge technologies in the industry. There is no standard answer for this assignment, and comprehensive evaluation, student self-evaluation and teacher evaluation are adopted.
- (2)
- Special technical study report. It accounts for 15%, a total of six times. Combining the teaching links of the project department classroom and industry elites entering the classroom, students are required to expand their knowledge, and innovatively complete the project based on the shortcomings of traditional construction technology and project management. Finally, a class report and defense is conducted, and the results of the project study is comprehensively assessed in the form of students’ mutual evaluation and teacher’s comments.
- (3)
- BIM technical work report. It accounts for 20%, a total of twice. With the development of BIM in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, its influence has gradually increased, and countries around the world have begun to pay attention to BIM education and introduce it into university courses [25,26]. Combined with the course teaching content and production-site learning, BIM design software is used to design and produce BIM works such as a construction-site layout, so as to expand students’ knowledge and understanding of civil-engineering construction. After the BIM works are completed, a theme report is produced, and the comprehensive results are assessed by the combination of students’ mutual evaluation and teacher’s comments.
- (4)
- Final comprehensive written test report. It accounts for 50%. The final exam includes multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, short answer questions, calculation questions and case-study questions. This section introduces cross-knowledge of advanced mathematics, mechanics, physics, national industry norms, etc., pays attention to the high-level and challenging degree of test questions, adopts a variety of test questions, and fully checks the students’ ability to master knowledge and their sustainable application ability.
6. Innovative Features
7. Course Evaluation and Reform Effect
7.1. Evaluation on the Implementation Process of 2P3E4R System
7.2. Evaluation of the of Course Objectives Achievement of Civil Engineering Construction
- Group A: Students’ self-evaluation at the end of the course.
- Group B: Students’ self-evaluation at graduation.
- Group C: Evaluation of students by employers after working for one year.
- Group D: Employers’ evaluation of students after five years of work.
- (1)
- The evaluation results of both students’ self-evaluation and employers’ evaluation of students are better than the formative evaluation results given by teachers according to the four reports, as shown in Figure 6.
- (2)
- The self-evaluation of students at the end of the course is [0.80, 0.85], indicating that they think they perform well. The study of other professional courses before graduation increases students’ self-confidence at graduation, and the self-scoring note increases to [0.85, 0.90].
- (3)
- The lowest evaluation of the employer on the achievement of students’ curriculum objectives one year after graduation is [0.70, 0.80], but the corresponding evaluation value increases to [0.80, 0.85] five years later, indicating that students have good sustainable development ability and have been fully recognized by their employers.
- (4)
- Students focus on mastering knowledge during school (corresponding to course objective 1), but employers focus on continuous innovation ability and healthy psychology (corresponding to course objective 3). These two concerns have the lowest scores in their respective evaluations, but they are still growing. In the future teaching work, teachers should strengthen the cultivation of these two concerns through the 2P3E4R system.
7.3. Achievements and Application of Course 2P3E4R System
8. Conclusions
- (1)
- 2P3E4R System, namely, Dual Platforms, Three Educations and Four Reports, has been gradually established and improved from 2010 to 2021, which enables Civil Engineering Construction course to obtain honor as a key construction course of Shaoxing University and a first-class course of Zhejiang Province.
- (2)
- Focusing on knowledge objectives, ability objectives and emotional-value objectives, this system is of great help to cultivating students’ ability to solve complex engineering problems and achieve high-level goals, enhancing the achievement of course objectives of Civil Engineering Construction from just over 0.6 in 2010 to over 0.8 at 2021.
- (3)
- A survey of thirty employers showed that the achievement of students’ curriculum objectives one year after graduation is [0.70, 0.80], but this value increases to [0.80, 0.85] five years later, indicating that students cultivated by the 2P3E4R System have good sustainable-development ability and have been fully recognized by employers.
- (4)
- This teaching innovation mode has helped our college students achieve fruitful and sustainable outputs, including wining 72 awards in discipline competitions, publish 53 scientific papers, apply for 20 invention patents, host 77 scientific projects, and receive 62 outstanding-graduate honors.
- (5)
- This teaching innovation mode has been applied to 14 courses; a good promotion effect has been achieved, including 3 first-class courses of Zhejiang Province and 11 first-class courses of Shaoxing University.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
BIM | Building Information Modeling |
OBE | Outcome-Based Education |
2P3E4R | Dual Platforms, Three Educations, Four Reports |
FD-QM | Fudan University-Quality Matters |
AEC | Architecture, Engineering and Construction |
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No. | Practice Base | On-Site Learning Content |
---|---|---|
1 | Zhejiang Zhongqingda Architectural Industrialization Co., Ltd. | Factory manufacturing process for prefabricated components of prefabricated buildings |
2 | Zhongsha Construction Group | Hoisting and installation of prefabricated components in prefabricated construction site |
3 | Huahui Engineering Design Group Co., Ltd. | Deep foundation engineering construction technology |
4 | Changye Construction Group | Construction technology of concrete engineering in housing construction |
5 | Tongchuang Engineering Design Co., Ltd. | Road subgrade construction, bridge prefabricated-component lifting |
6 | Zhejiang Mingye Project Management Co., Ltd. | BIM technology for network planning |
7 | Huanyu Group | BIM technology for visualization of construction scheme |
8 | Jinggong Steel Bulding Group | Steel-structure-component factory production technology, steel-structure joint technology |
9 | Glodon Company Limited | BIM5D construction-management technology |
Achievement Grade | Excellent | Good | Pass | Failure |
---|---|---|---|---|
Achievement degree pi | 0.95 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.5 |
Objectives | Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
---|---|---|---|---|
Objective 1 | 0.80 | 0.85 | 0.76 | 0.85 |
Objective 2 | 0.82 | 0.87 | 0.80 | 0.83 |
Objective3 | 0.85 | 0.90 | 0.70 | 0.80 |
Year | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Discipline competition award | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 72 |
Scientific paper | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 53 |
Invention patent | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 20 |
Scientific project | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 72 |
Outstanding graduates | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 62 |
No. | Course Name | Start Time | Lasting Years | Major Name | Course Honors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Civil Engineering Construction | 2010 | 12 | Civil Engineering | First-class course, Zhejiang Province |
2 | High-rise Building Construction | 2010 | 12 | Civil Engineering | Key course, Shaoxing University |
3 | Building Engineering Construction | 2010 | 12 | Architecture | Key course, Shaoxing University |
4 | Civil Engineering Construction Organization | 2011 | 11 | Architecture | First-class course, Shaoxing University |
5 | Engineering Evaluation | 2011 | 11 | Architecture | Key course, Shaoxing University |
6 | Introduction to Civil Engineering | 2014 | 8 | Civil Engineering | First-class course, Shaoxing University |
7 | Civil Engineering Material | 2014 | 8 | Civil Engineering | Core course, Shaoxing University |
8 | Engineering Economy and Project Management | 2015 | 7 | Engineering Management | First-class course, Zhejiang Province |
9 | Construction Engineering Budget | 2015 | 7 | Engineering Management | First-class course, Zhejiang Province |
10 | Construction Engineering Inspection | 2015 | 7 | Civil Engineering | Core course, Shaoxing University |
11 | Operation Research and Engineering Optimization | 2016 | 6 | Engineering Management | Key course, Shaoxing University |
12 | Principles of Reinforced Concrete Structure | 2017 | 5 | Civil Engineering | First-class course, Shaoxing University |
13 | Principle of Steel Structure | 2017 | 5 | Civil Engineering | First-class course, Shaoxing University |
14 | Principle and Application of BIM Technology | 2018 | 4 | Engineering Management | First-class course, Shaoxing University |
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Li, N.; Jiang, P.; Li, C.; Wang, W. College Teaching Innovation from the Perspective of Sustainable Development: The Construction and Twelve-Year Practice of the 2P3E4R System. Sustainability 2022, 14, 7130. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127130
Li N, Jiang P, Li C, Wang W. College Teaching Innovation from the Perspective of Sustainable Development: The Construction and Twelve-Year Practice of the 2P3E4R System. Sustainability. 2022; 14(12):7130. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127130
Chicago/Turabian StyleLi, Na, Ping Jiang, Cuihong Li, and Wei Wang. 2022. "College Teaching Innovation from the Perspective of Sustainable Development: The Construction and Twelve-Year Practice of the 2P3E4R System" Sustainability 14, no. 12: 7130. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127130
APA StyleLi, N., Jiang, P., Li, C., & Wang, W. (2022). College Teaching Innovation from the Perspective of Sustainable Development: The Construction and Twelve-Year Practice of the 2P3E4R System. Sustainability, 14(12), 7130. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127130