Applying home schooling lessons to engineering education

There is mounting evidence that homeschooling provides a better education than traditional classroom education.A comparison of standardized tests results showed that on average 5,402 homeschooled students outperformed public schooled students by 30 to 37 percentile in all subjects.The Tennessee Dept of Education found that 2 nd grade homeschooled children scored in the 93 rd percentile as compared to public school students who scored in the 62 nd percentile and similar results have been reported in other states.These results have been attributed to various factors including parental involvement, class size, flexibility, and self-directed learning.In homeschooling, students are given some basic instruction and then sent off to learn the material on their own.Similarly, self-directed learning (SDL) requires that the student take ownership of their own learning.As is seen with exceptional students, nontraditional students, and graduate students, students who take ownership of their learning greatly outperform other students.Ownership of learning and self-directed learning are key components of lifelong learning, which the American Society of Civil Engineers professes to be critical for professional success.Yet, current engineering education methodologies focus little on SDL and student ownership of learning; instead, the focus seems to be on how the instructor can be more entertaining or engaging.The authors suggest that shifting from faculty centered learning to SDL has the potential to improve information retention, and critical thinking skills among entry level engineers.There is evidence that students will learn more and will have the tools required for lifelong learning if we set up classes using self-directed learning methods and the students take ownership of their own learning.