1. Developing
Personal Mastery of
Engineering Educators to
Educate Future Engineers
Dr. N. Asokan
ntvasokan@gmail.com
91-9445191369

2. Background
Ed u c a t o rs a l w ay s
h a v e m o r e t o l e a r n .
P e r s o n a l M a s t e r y i s
c e n t r a l t o t h e q u a l i t y
o f H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n
C h a n g e s i n t h e
e n g i n e e r i n g
p r o fe s s i o n fo l l o w
c h a n g e s i n c u l t u ra l ,
s o c i a l , a n d p o l i t i c a l
e n v i r o n m e n t s .
Social and
political contexts
change, and the
specific
circumstances in
which
engineering
schools,
faculties,
and students
find themselves
have changed
with new
technologies and
social
developments
that pose new
challenges
Engineering
profession in the
next decade will
undergo
dramatic
changes, driven
by not only
technological
developments
but also societal
transformation
Past
accomplishment
s of teachers
guarantee
nothing about
future success
and an almost
obsessive need
for self-initiated
teaching,
learning and
assessing
process and
continuous
improvement.

3. 3
OPPORTUNITY AND CHALLENGE
Prepare engineers for
solving unknown
problems and not
for addressing
assumed scenarios
the emphasis
should be on
teaching to learn
Teaching engineers to think
analytically will be more
important than helping
them memorize algebra
theorems.
Teaching them to cope with
rapid progress will be
more critical than
teaching them all of the
technology breakthroughs
In the past 20 years that the amount of new knowledge increases at a logarithmic rate in all
technology and physical science disciplines
Students are driven by passion, curiosity, engagement, and dreams
Making universities and engineering institutions exciting, creative, adventurous, rigorous,
demanding, and empowering milieus are more important than specifying curricular details.
section 02
Explosive advances in
knowledge,
instrumentation,
communication, and
computational
capabilities have
created mind-boggling
possibilities for the
next generation.

4. 4
Transformations of
Engineering
Education
 Accreditation Board for Engineering and
Technology (ABET) identified 12
competences
 Seel (2000) suggests that cultural change
in engineering education will be
achieved only when the nature of the
conversation about engineering
education has changed.
 Eckel and Kezar (2003) suggest that
transforming engineering education will
require that the majority of engineering
faculty members change the way they
think about engineering education.
 The reformation in engineering
education suggest that social and
political changes cannot be successfully
adapted and adopted if current faculty
are not actively encouraged and
supported to develop their personal
mastery.
section 03
 The engineering profession
has a trans-organizational
character.
 Engineering educators have
debated at length over the
last 125 years
 Journal of Engineering
Education, 1893, one can
track the ongoing debates
about the nature and shape
of engineering education.

5. 5
Need for a new generation
of faculty able to bridge
the gap between
engineering education and
engineering practice.
Need for
faculty to
possess the
mix of
knowledge,
skills and
experiences
To c a p t u r e t h e i m a g i n a t i o n s o f y o u n g p e o p l e
P a s t a c c o m p l i s h m e n t s o f t e a c h e r s g u a r a n t e e n o t h i n g a b o u t f u t u r e
s u c c e s s
I n t e r n a t i o n a l m a r k e t p l a c e f o r e n g i n e e r i n g s e r v i c e s i s d y n a m i c .
Need for Personal Mastery

6. 6
Personal Mastery
section 04
Discipline of
personal growth
and learning
Continually
expanding
people’s ability to
create the results
in life they truly
seek
• continually clarifying what is
important to us
• continually learning how to
see current reality more
clearly

7. 7
Nine Characteristics
V i s i o n f o r
T h e m s e l v e s H ig h Energ y
F a n a t i c
D i s c i p l i n e
Story
Telling
T r u s t e d
R e l a t i o n s h i p
L i fe l o n g
L e a r n i n g
Simplicity
S y s t e m
T h i n k i n g
Performance
with
Purpose

8. • Have a very clear idea of
what they believe they can
become
• What they think they are
capable of
• Visualize great outcomes for
the lessons they taught
• Expect students to be
inspired for life
• Set high expectations in all
domains of student
contribution
• Don’t be afraid to dream the
impossible dream.

9. Educators just need to be
constantly relating
anything that they are
actually doing to a bigger
purpose.
Mathematics
is weight
training for
the brain.

10. C o n s i s t e n c y w i t h
l o n g t e r m g o a l s
D i s c i p l i n e i s n o t
t h e s a m e a s
m e a s u re m e n t
C o n s i s t e n c y w i t h
p e r fo r m a n c e
s t a n d a rd s
D i s c i p l i n e i s n o t
t h e s a m e a s
re g i m e n t a t i o n
C o n s i s t e n c y o f
m e t h o d
D i s c i p l i n e i s n o t
t h e s a m e a s
h i e ra rc h i c a l
o b e d i e n c e
C o n s i s t e n c y o v e r
t i m e
D i s c i p l i n e i s n o t
t h e s a m e a s
a d h e re n c e t o
b u re a u c ra t i c r u l e s
Fanatic
Discipline
Tr u e d i s c i p l i n e r e q u i r e s
i n d e p e n d e n c e o f m i n d
t o r e j e c t p r e s s u r e t o
c o n f i r m i n w a y s
i n c o m p a t i b l e w i t h
v a l u e s , p e r f o r m a n c e
s t a n d a r d s , a n d l o n g
t e r m a s p i r a t i o n s .
T h e o n l y f o r m
l e g i t i m a t e f o r m o f
d i s c i p l i n e i s s e l f
d i s c i p l i n e , h a v i n g t h e
i n n e r w i l l t o d o
w h a t e v e r i t t a k e s t o
c r e a t e a g r e a t
o u t c o m e , n o m a t t e r
h o w d i f f i c u l t .

11. High energy give the
impression of increase for
all their followers.
Students perceive
educators as being able to
bring more to their lives.
Give the impression of
increase routinely, without
even being aware of it

12. Lifelong learning is an activity to fill
up the “competency gap” between
what you want and what is your
current competency level to
achieve what you want.
There is a need to learn, arises
from a “learning gap” between
what is known and what needs to
be known
Self discipline
Comfort with
repetitiveness
If required,
comfort with being
alone.

13. Trusted Relationship
Human Relations
The ability to get along with
and influence other people
Global currency
is made of
Relationships
Trust
The key to success is
your ability to earn trust.
People trust and
choose to believe
people they like
‘‘The more people trust you, the more they buy
from you.’’
–David Ogilvy

15. Stories provide inspiration
Inspiration drives action
Part
Entertainment
Part Instruction
Stories cause Mental
Simulation. Mental
Simulation build Skills

17. 17
System Thinking“Age of
Interdependence”
humankind have the
capacity to create far
more information
than anyone can
absorb
to foster far greater
interdependence
than anyone can
manage
to accelerate change
faster than anyone’s
ability to keep pace.
Shift of mind from
seeing parts to
seeing wholes
seeing people as
helpless reactors
to seeing them
as active
participants in
shaping their
reality
reacting to the
present to
creating future.

18. 18
Simplicity
The process
of
prioritizati
on is the
heart of
simplicity.
“Finding
the
Core.”
Simplicity
doesn’t
mean
dumping
down, it
means
choosing
Classic Bohr model of an atom –
It’s like the solar system but on a microscopic level
A one-sentence idea that’s sufficiently profound t
hat you could spend a lifetime living up to it.

19. Conclusion
Why are educators teaching this
stuff,
when students could easily learn this
on the internet,
from books,
through games etc.?

20. Conclusion
 Educators are an inspiration,
 students want something educators have got,
 students see educators in action, talented, and pick up the fact that they
believe in themselves,
 they work hard,
 they think differently,
 they simplify the complexity,
 they have great personal energy,
 they trust worthy,
 they are fanatically driven,
 infected with an incurable need to produce great results and
 they tell great stories...

21. No People can rise above the level of its
teachers
- Cicero