Abstract:
Universities of Technology must enable students to
acquire the necessary knowledge (theory), workplace skills
(practice), and graduate attributes (theory and practice) needed to
meet the needs of industry, business and community. Reflective
practice may involve the thoughtful consideration of an academics
own experiences in enhancing the fusion of theory and practice in
an engineering curriculum. This fusion is currently an important
criterion for Universities of Technology who may face increased
pressure to improve their throughput rates. This paper aims to
answer the following research question: “What balance currently
exists between the practical and theoretical success of
undergraduate students in a number of different engineering
disciplines at a University of Technology”? Reflecting on the
current balance that exists and its implications may assist
academics in changing their pedagogy to include more effective
ways of fusing theory and practice. A post-facto study is employed
along with descriptive statistics involving quantitative analysis of
the collected data. Results do indicate that undergraduate
engineering students are more adept at completing the practical
assessments scheduled in a laboratory, suggesting that more time
on practice should be scheduled along with practical experiments
that promote critical thinking and problem solving skills.
