Transportation Engineering Education for Undergraduate Students: Competencies, Skills, Teaching-Learning, and Evaluation

Abstract

In general terms, engineering education at the undergraduate level should be based on at least three aspects: the definition of learning outcomes aligned not only with theoretical contents but also with competencies and skills; the specification of teaching-learning methods; and the evaluation of the learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to analyze an approach that combines traditional lectures and active learning into one strategy to help in the development of competencies and skills demanded by the transportation engineering profession. The authors examined if the acquisition of the skills could be assessed through conventional evaluation techniques and concept maps. An experiment was conducted for the specific case of the course Planning and Analysis of Transport Systems, in three phases: (1) planning the teaching-learning process; (2) evaluating the teaching-learning process; and (3) evaluating the teaching-learning product. The results show that the use of a problem-identification methodology combined with conventional classroom activities is adequate in addressing the domains of the conceptual relationships and relational and attitudinal cognitive procedures, as presented in Bloom’s taxonomy. The main conclusion refers to the use of concept maps as a strategy for learning evaluation. The results suggest that concept maps can serve as an additional assessment instrument, to assure an evaluation that is more precise and coherent with the learning outcomes desired for transportation engineering education.