The introduction of the approach by attributes in the curricula is innovative for the training in Engineering. This approach obeys the consideration of the learning results as the axis of the training, being the attributes the results of a greater degree of generality and therefore those that guide all the teaching and learning efforts.
The definition of attribute developed by the Washington Accord is:
“(…) set of evaluable individual results, which are indicative components of the potential of the graduate to acquire the competence for professional practice.”
The analysis of this definition allows us to grasp the main aspects related to the attributes:
First, they are individual results, that is to say, it is expected that the trained person will manifest them as distinctive features of the culmination of their formative process and that therefore they can be learned.
Second, what can be evaluated is what implies the possibility of comparing the performance of the person trained and a previously established frame of reference and from there establishing the value or merit of what has been achieved.
Third, they are indicative components of the graduate’s potential. This is not finished aspects but a sample of those that can be achieved.
Fourth aspect, the attributes establish the conditions considered suitable for the person trained to later reach the competencies that empower him as skillful in a professional area.
This last aspect is relevant, because it distinguishes between attribute and competence. The first is the result of training, the second is the product of professional practice. And although both aspects are intimately linked, they are different.
This also allows us to clarify what is expected of the training effort, what the program must accomplish, and to enable the conditions for the attributes to arise.
In the first instance, the evaluation of the incorporation of the attribute approach will seek to elucidate whether the training effort has been valid, that is, if it has provided the person who is being formed the relevant conditions for the attributes to manifest.
In the second instance, what is sought to be evaluated is whether or not the trained person has the established attributes.
But what are the expected attributes? The international engineering alliance has established twelve general attributes that should be the foundation and purpose of the training process, namely:
- Engineering Knowledge: Apply knowledge of mathematics, natural science, engineering fundamentals and an engineering specialization as specified respectively to the solution of complex engineering problems.
- Problem Analysis: Identify, formulate, research literature and analyze complex engineering problems reaching substantiated conclusions using first principles of mathematics, natural sciences and engineering sciences.
- Design/ development of solutions: Design solutions for complex engineering problems and design systems, components or processes that meet specified needs with appropriate consideration for public health and safety, cultural, societal, and environmental considerations.
- Investigation: Conduct investigations of complex problems using research-based knowledge and research methods including design of experiments, analysis and interpretation of data, and synthesis of information to provide valid conclusions.
- Modern Tool Usage: Create, select and apply appropriate techniques, resources, and modern engineering and IT tools, including prediction and modelling, to complex engineering problems, with an understanding of the limitations.
- The Engineer and Society: Apply reasoning informed by contextual knowledge to assess societal, health, safety, legal and cultural issues and the consequent responsibilities relevant to professional engineering practice and solutions to complex engineering problems.
- Environment and Sustainability: Understand and evaluate the sustainability and impact of professional engineering work in the solution of complex engineering problems in societal and environmental contexts.
- Ethics: Apply ethical principles and commit to professional ethics and responsibilities and norms of engineering practice.
- Individual and Team work: Apply ethical principles and commit to professional ethics and responsibilities and norms of engineering practice.
- Communication: Communicate effectively on complex engineering activities with the engineering community and with society at large, such as being able to comprehend and write effective reports and design documentation, make effective presentations, and give and receive clear instructions.
- Project Management and Finance: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of engineering management principles and economic decision-making and apply these to one’s own work, as a member and leader in a team, to manage projects and in multidisciplinary environments.
- Lifelong learning: Recognize the need for, and have the preparation and ability to engage in independent and life-long learning in the broadest context of technological change.
All these attributes are defined in terms of skills, which the graduate should be able to demonstrate as a product of the training process. These capacities develop gradually, in such a way that it is possible to identify at least three levels of progress: initial, intermediate and advanced.
At the initial level, the person in training is able to remember and understand the knowledge, skills and attitudes that denote a given attribute. At the intermediate level, the person in training is able to apply and analyze the knowledge, skills and attitudes involved in an attribute. At the advanced level, the person in training is able to evaluate and synthesize knowledge, skills and attitudes of an attribute.
From the definition it follows that the incorporation of the attribute approach will be complete at the moment in which the program presents evidence that its graduates hold, to a relevant degree, the capacities indicated in each of the twelve established attributes.
The criterion pointed out by AAPIA to evaluate the incorporation of the attribute approach in the training process involves four aspects: the effectiveness and relevance of the policies, and actions carried out by the program to advance the incorporation of the attribute approach.
By policies it is understood the most general decisions that have been made regarding the organization and commitment of the academic community, in particular of teachers, to incorporate the approach by attributes, and that ensure the sustainability of the effort to develop and measure these.
For actions it is expected, that the program evidences a significant advance in four basic elements:
- The curricular mapping of the attributes, this is the graphic indication in the curricular mesh of the moments of exposure to learning situations, that favor the development of the attributes and the moments in which they are evaluated, in their different levels of development: initial, intermediate or advanced (it is usually a matrix of subjects vs. attributes). It is recommended that, in the study programs, of the different subjects, the attributes to which it contributes, its level and its evaluation be made explicit.
- Development of performance indicators, which are means to corroborate the level of achievement of the attributes in their different components. These indicators must be properly documented.
- Development of evaluation tools, which are the instruments used to assess the level of progress in the consolidation of attributes. The preparation of the tools necessarily implies the realization of the procedures linked to their use. An example of these tools is the “evaluation rubrics”, which are scoring guides used in evaluating student performance that describe the specific characteristics of a product, project or task at various levels of performance, in order to clarify what is expected of the student’s work, to assess its execution and to facilitate the proportion of feedback that must be given.
- Results of the evaluation of the attributes. The program should show the concrete achievements of a significant percentage of the students, in the consolidation of the twelve attributes, as well as the corrective actions taken, in case of not obtaining satisfactory results.
In the procedures of the AAPIA, the evaluation of the progress in the incorporation of the approach by attributes, has been assigned in the first instance to the deputy head of the evaluation team, with the close collaboration of the program specialist. They are the ones who must clarify if the policies and actions are effective and pertinent, for this the following tally sheet is used:
Tally sheet for assessing progress:
| Aspect | Element | Rating Level | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C+ | C | C- | N | ||
| Policies | Organization | ||||
| Compromise | |||||
| Action | Curricular Map | ||||
| Indicators | |||||
| Tools | |||||
| Results | |||||
Where the established qualification levels are:
C+: The program exceeds the requirements of effectiveness and relevance. The incorporation of the attributes is a consolidated aspect.
C: The program satisfies the requirements of effectiveness and pertinence. The incorporation of the attributes is satisfactory, shows a noticeable progress, tends to improve, but has not yet been fully consolidated.
C-: The program complies with the basic actions for the incorporation of the attributes, but its development is incipient.
N: The program does not comply fully with the elements for the incorporation of the attributes in its training process.