ICL2017 Highlights

The theme of ICL2017 Conference was "Teaching and Learning in a Digital World". The event was held in Budapest, Hungary September 27-29, 2017 (http://www.icl-conference.org/icl2017/). ICL2017 was the 20th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning and 46th IGIP International Conference on Engineering Pedagogy. ICL2017 was organized in cooperation with Óbuda University, International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE) and International Society for Engineering Pedagogy (IGIP)

Relationships Among Economy, Industry, Vocational Education and Training and Higher Engineering Education – The Trefort Project Editorial

It is a great pleasure to contribute some words to the debate about Engineering Education as well as to broaden the discussion about the future evolution of this discipline. Thanks to the International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP) and its editor-in-chief, Matthias Utesch, as well as to the collaboration between the IGIP (International Society for Engineering Pedagogy), we have received a possibility to collect the best papers of our 9th Trefort Ágoston Conference on Vocational Education and Training and Technical Teacher Training at Óbuda University (ÓE) Electrical Engineering Faculty in Budapest, in Hungary. The Conference was organized as an IGIP Regional Conference for the third time. Before introducing the articles, I summarize the main important elements influencing the Higher Engineering Education in Hungary. The Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds, companies are seeking to harness new and emerging technologies to reach higher levels of efficiency of production and consumption, expand into new markets, and compete on new products for a global consumer base composed increasingly of digital natives. There are several requirements for qualified engineers: they have to be creative, critical thinking, complex program solvers and have to have competencies of cognitive flexibility, high-level communication, teamwork, and application of foreign languages. At our university, we have recognized several problems according to SWOT analyses. Not enough number of students would like to select STEM faculties. The rate of early school leaving (ESL) is too high in the STEM area. Requests of the Labor market have not appeared in Training curricula. The candidate students do not know the future carrier and the content they have to learn. In secondary schools, the development of basic competencies and STEM subjects is not effective e.g. teaching Math is not practice-oriented, this is why the results of students on PISA tests are weaker. The preparation for higher education is not enough, which leads to ESL by the end of the first year in higher education. The quality of knowledge of secondary education pupils is an important input for engineering higher education. The vocational secondary schools can provide the majority of starting engineering studies at technical universities. The technical teacher training prepares the vocational teachers for secondary vocational schools. The quality of technical teacher training, the adequacy of curricula to professional needs can be key questions for the future of engineering education. The practice of vocational teacher-students is a basic element of their studies. These practices are organized in secondary vocational schools. But realizing these practices needs a mentor teacher. In this Trefort Project, we selected 6 presentations and asked the authors to submit their articles for a Special Issue of the International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP)

The Status of Natural Scientific Education and its Relationship with Exam Systems

According to international surveys (PISA, TIMSS), the mathematical and natural science test results of the Hungarian students have been steadily declining. The number of those who are affected by school dropouts is high. The present educational methods are not able to prepare the students properly for measures requiring application-oriented knowledge. In the hierarchy, natural science subjects are considered to be the least popular and significant ones among students. Compared to the 1970s and 80s, the natural sciences have become the ’great losing side’ due to the lessons’ number changes of the consecutive Nation-al Core Curriculum. The low lesson number is not in balance with the huge amount of educational material to be learned. There is not enough time to perform experiments, to deepen knowledge, to have student-centered methods. Based upon the core points of the new National Core Curriculum, a piece of extensive scientific knowledge and being able to solve problems are the most fundamental skills to be developed, however, the viability of the implementations have not begun to take shape. The Final exam is the most influential output element in our examination system. Presently only a few students tend to choose science subjects for their Final ex-amination, moreover few people take an advanced level ex-am in these fields. Fortunately, from this year it is compulsory to take an advanced level examination of the minimum one subject for entry to higher education. Nowadays there are not any obligatory science subjects for the Final examination, however, their introduction is a prevalent topic among professionals. Several people hope that by the new examination, the level of students' motivation for the subject and the general knowledge of the society could be increased. In 2019 the authors made the survey. They elaborated questionnaires for teachers and students about the effect of the exam on students’ motivation and knowledge. They expected a high level of acceptance of an introduction of compulsory science subjects for the Final examination. It is a promising result that the majority of students and teachers find science knowledge important. Unfortunately, the popularity index of these subjects is still bad; this means that we have to find a solution for improving the teaching-learning process

The Status of Natural Scientific Education and its Relationship with Exam Systems

According to international surveys (PISA, TIMSS), the mathematical and natural science test results of the Hungarian students have been steadily declining. The number of those who are affected by school dropouts is high. The present educational methods are not able to prepare the students properly for measures requiring application-oriented knowledge. In the hierarchy, natural science subjects are considered to be the least popular and significant ones among students. Compared to the 1970s and 80s, the natural sciences have become the ’great losing side’ due to the lessons’ number changes of the consecutive Nation-al Core Curriculum. The low lesson number is not in balance with the huge amount of educational material to be learned. There is not enough time to perform experiments, to deepen knowledge, to have student-centered methods. Based upon the core points of the new National Core Curriculum, a piece of extensive scientific knowledge and being able to solve problems are the most fundamental skills to be developed, however, the viability of the implementations have not begun to take shape. The Final exam is the most influential output element in our examination system. Presently only a few students tend to choose science subjects for their Final ex-amination, moreover few people take an advanced level ex-am in these fields. Fortunately, from this year it is compulsory to take an advanced level examination of the minimum one subject for entry to higher education. Nowadays there are not any obligatory science subjects for the Final examination, however, their introduction is a prevalent topic among professionals. Several people hope that by the new examination, the level of students' motivation for the subject and the general knowledge of the society could be increased. In 2019 the authors made the survey. They elaborated questionnaires for teachers and students about the effect of the exam on students’ motivation and knowledge. They expected a high level of acceptance of an introduction of compulsory science subjects for the Final examination. It is a promising result that the majority of students and teachers find science knowledge important. Unfortunately, the popularity index of these subjects is still bad; this means that we have to find a solution for improving the teaching-learning process