CASE STUDY ON INTEGRATED CURRICULUM USING SPIRAL CURRICULUM MODEL FOR CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

This paper shares the experience of the Diploma in Chemical Engineering (DCHE) offered by Singapore Polytechnic (SP) in using the CDIO Framework to guide the design and implementation of the integrated curriculum for chemical engineering students through a spiral curriculum model. An anchor chemical plant, namely Amine Treating Unit (ATU) is used to introduce simple concepts to the students first, which are then revisited and re-construed in a more in-depth and elaborated manner throughout the three-year course.  The CDIO learning outcomes are intertwine into the context of learning to support the levelling up of knowledge and skills from one semester to another, from one module to another, while integrating critical thinking skills with disciplinary knowledge to provide a more holistic approach to engineering education for our students.  The paper first introduces spiral curriculum for chemical engineering and explains how the modules are sequenced within the three-year course based on the complexity of concepts, context of learning as well as opportunities for application and integration of knowledge.  Then, it describes the use of ATU chemical process plant as a case study to deliver the spiral curriculum where knowledge and skill competencies are levelled up via a series of modules offered within the 3-year diploma course.  Learning opportunities are created for students to revisit knowledge and content at different stages of the curriculum, activate prior knowledge and integrate knowledge and skills.  Surveys were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of student learning.  It was found that when the same case study is used, students are familiar with the case and are more receptive to building new knowledge, hence making connections between prior knowledge and new knowledge.  Faculty teaching staff make deliberate efforts to point out how the concepts are related and connected, how the concepts are levelled up from one level to the next so that students make personal meaning of knowledge and see how it is used in real world applications and problem-solving.  In the last section of the paper, it outlines the broad areas where the delivery of the spiral curriculum can be further improved and enhanced to better support student learning.