CDIO APPROACH IN DEVELOPING SOLUTION MINDED LEARNERS

From its early days as the first polytechnic in Singapore, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) has been working closely with the government to train and arm the workforce with the skills needed for the country’s economic growth. As the pace of globalisation accelerated in the 80s to 90s, the strategic policy was implemented to strengthen and drive towards becoming an innovation economy. This strategy led to the setting up of research and innovation centres in the local Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) such as SP. In SP, the Civil Engineering course is one of the first engineering courses that offers a broad-based engineering discipline. The School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE) is the first school to offer built environment related courses, including the civil engineering course, before being a coordinator of training for the Building and Construction sector among the five local polytechnics. As an applied learning institution, ABE Civil Engineering has adopted the CDIO approach allowing staff and students to engage in real-life and industry relevant research projects to enable the application of knowledge and the use of CDIO skills to conceptualize, design and develop industry relevant solutions. Such engagement in real-life and industry research project settings enable students in their final year projects (FYP) to directly contribute to real-life such industry projects, while building their proficiency to become solution-minded learners who are both innovative and have a curious mindset.This paper describes the integrated learning process of how the adoption of CDIO approach can be realised with staff in close collaboration with the industry to pursue industry relevant solutions. This integrated learning experience (CDIO Standard 7) can foster the learning of disciplinary knowledge simultaneously with solution-minded strategies.This collaboration with the industry explores the journey that ABE has taken from concept, design to development of its green masterplan, to its evolution and establishment of focus on green technology research that expose students to such research areas through their (FYP) involvement. Two research projects of recycling of palm frond into bioplastic, and also of incinerator ash to aerogel materials, will be utilised to show how these FYP student activities help students to be solution-minded in their approaches. Feedbacks were collected through face-to-face interviews with the two groups of students to identify challenges and propose improvements to facilitate the integrated learning experiences. This paper represents the work of the current CDIO implementation and the initial development of a new module.