engleski

STUDENTS' SATISFACTION OF PROJECT BASED TEACHING IN ENGENEERING EDUCATION

The development of the students’ technological and engineering competences in modern society is a major challenge for institutions and teachers of higher education. This problem is even greater because of expectations anticipatory competences that allow students quick orientation into the dynamic technological environments and solving problems in an acceptable manner. In the current higher education often lacks of activities that develop these competences, which project-based teaching imposed as a more effective approach to engineering education. In order to determine students' satisfaction and their perception about the project-based teaching effectiveness, we designed the PBL program of selected teaching subject and we collected data from students and their advancements during four academic years. The study was conducted with a sample of students of final years undergraduate study of Polytechnics at the University of Rijeka (N = 45). Analysing the results of the survey we found that student experience project-based teaching more interesting than traditional, and they have impression that their knowledge is higher. Qualitative analysis of the students' activities revealed higher quality of products of their work and greater motivation, self- confidence, responsibility and teamwork abilities. From the research results it is evident that the project based teaching, regardless of the individual attained knowledge levels, has positive effect on achievement in the affective domain and for the development of system approach to solving technological problems, as essential preconditions for the development of engineering competences.

anticipatory competences; engineering education; project-based teaching; system approach; technological competences.

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