The engineer of the future, many other professionals and employees in general will be facing more and more complex challenges that would require much wider skills sets and interdisciplinary knowledge applications that integrate “science, technology and social systems” (National Academy of Engineering 2004, cited by Davis and Yadav 2014, 163). It is envisaged that “work environments will be inherently ill structured and complex owing to conflicting goals, unanticipated problems, multiple solution methods, non-technical success standards, and unavoidable constraints”.
Situated learning in “authentic and meaningful contexts”, enabling students to experience to complexities they may be faced with, is easier said than done. During the 20th century cooperative and work-integrated education went a long way towards placing students in authentic workplace learning environments. However, “anchored instruction” is advocated as the solution for formal education settings.
The goal of anchored instruction is to overcome the inert knowledge problem by creating environments that enable students and teachers to experience the problems and opportunities experts in the field face and tools they use to tackle the problems. Furthermore, anchored instruction models are how experts change their own thinking based on new concepts and theories, rather than looking at new information as facts or mechanical procedures that need to be memorised (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt [CGTV] cited by Davis and Yadav 2014, 164).
Davis, C. and Yadav, A. 2014. Case studies in engineering, pp. 161 – 180. In A. Johri and B.M. Olds (eds). 2014. Cambridge handbook of engineering education research. New York: Cambridge University Press.
National Academy of Engineering. 2004. The engineer of 2020: Visions of engineering in the new century. Washington, DC: The National Academy Press.