ENGINEERING FACULTY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (TRAINING OF TRAINERS) AT RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract ENGINEERING FACULTY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (TRAINING OF TRAINERS) AT RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES German S. Dyakonov, Youri Pokholkov, Vasiliy G. Ivanov, Vladimir V. Kondratiev, Julia N. ZiyatdinovaA peculiar feature of Russian engineering education is that the majority of faculty who teachengineering disciplines do not have any pedagogical background; their education comprises thefollowing stages: Bachelor Degree Program – Master Degree Program – Post-graduate Program,then they proceed to work as an instructor, an assistant professor, and an associate professor inthe corresponding departments of the University.Faculty can participate in special professional development programs of psycho-pedagogicaltraining in the system of the so-called Additional Professional Education (hereinafter APE) atspecial university units such as Department (or Faculty) of Professional Development(hereinafter FPD) and Centers for Training and Professional Development (hereinafter CTPD)established at the leading engineering universities.Three mainstreams of professional development programs funded by the Ministry of Educationand Science of the Russian Federation were implemented during the last years in CTPD andFPD: 1) professional development programs at home universities (72 hours, the participantsbalancing work and study); 2) professional development programs at other universities (72hours, the participants leaving their home university for around 2 weeks); 3) professionaldevelopment programs at home universities (over 500 hours, the participants balancing work andstudy).All the three types of programs are run at Kazan National Research Technological University(KNRTU). Moreover, several all-Russian events have been hosted by KNRTU in the last years,including:- Meeting of Coordination Council on additional professional education of the RussianFederation (2002);- All-Russian meeting on problems of modernization and development of additional professionaleducation (2004);- The 7th All-Russian conference on additional professional education "Challenges ofAdditional Professional Education Development Under Education Reforms" (2006);- The 9th All-Russian conference on additional professional education and All-Russian forum"Social Partnership in System of Continuing Education" (2008).In 2011, with participation of International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP) andRussian National Training Foundation, KNRTU hosted International scientific school "HigherTechnical Education as an Instrument of Innovative Development" [1].Three days of the conference saw two master-classes, a training, three workshops, a round table,two meetings (the meeting of the Russian Monitoring Committee IGIP and the meeting ofAssociation for Engineering Education of Russia), 20 reports from the leading internationalscholars. Over 300 participants from education, industry, ministries and authorities, including150 KNRTU faculty members were involved in the event.In 2012, under the aegis of International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP), RussianNational Training Foundation and Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation,KNRTU hosted another International scientific school "New Challenges of EngineeringEducation for Gas and Petrochemical Complex in the Context of Russia’s Accession to theWorld Trade Organization (WTO)" [6].Five days of this conference witnessed an expert seminar, ten workshops, four round tables, over20 reports from the leading international scholars. The event gathered around 420 participantsfrom different countries (USA, Germany, UAE, Austria, Israel, Ukraine) and different cities ofRussia (Moscow, St.Petersburg, Tomsk, Arkhangelsk, Novosibirsk, Yakutsk, Smara, Sratov,Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Ivanovo, and etc.).On September 25-27, 2013, under the aegis of Russian National Training Foundation,International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP) and its Russian Monitoring Committee(RMC IGIP), Carinthia Technical Institute (CTI), KNRTU hosted the 42nd IGIP InternationalConference on Engineering Pedagogy "The Global Challenges in Engineering Education" andthe 16th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning [2, 4, 7].The event gathered over 500 participants from 44 countries, including scholars and scientists,leaders of international organizations, representatives of authorities, leaders of industrialenterprises and non-governmental organizations.The international conference aimed at discussing the trends of education and researchdevelopment in technical universities, exchanging practical experience in engineering education,and introducing pilot projects.The conference included four plenary sessions, annual IGIP meeting, IGIP award sessions,young scientist award session, and 51 full paper and poster sessions with 210 reports.The same dates, September 23-28, 2013 were given to International Scientific School“Engineering Education for New Industrial Development” [4, 5]. Six days of the school includedfour plenary sessions with 14 reports, 6 teaching workshops, 12 topical workshops, 7 roundtables, one of them with participation of the President of the Tatarstan Republic, RustamMinnikhanov, and 2 expert seminar.In the last few years, another interesting trend in KNRTU is a series of workshops chaired byAcademician of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, Sergey Dyakonov, including:- Challenges of Higher Professional Education (2008-2009) [3];- Higher Professional Education for Innovative Development (2010-2011);- New Tasks of Engineering Education for Gas and Petrochemical Complex (2012) [6];- Engineering Education for New Industrial Development; Challenges and Opportunities (2013)[5].The first series of workshops included the following meetings: 'International Trends and Modelsof Higher Professional Education', 'Social Consequences of Higher Education Development inthe World', 'Strategies and Models of Higher Professional Education Development in the RussianFederation', 'Competence-based Engineer Training', 'Modern Educational Technologies inTechnical University', 'Designing Academic Disciplines as Information Models for DistanceLearning', 'Application of Computer Technologies in Teaching Physics', 'Designing AcademicDisciplines for Competence-based Engineer Training', 'Quantum Chemistry Techniques forChemical Engineering Students', 'Russian Higher professional Education in the Context ofGlobal Development Trends', 'Training Engineers in Real Virtual Environment' [3].The second series of workshops included the following meetings: 'Contents of HigherProfessional Education for Innovative Development', 'Methodology of Innovative Engineering','Engineering Solutions for Chemical Technology', 'Education Contents as an Instrument forDeveloping Professional Potential of an Engineer', 'Concept of Chemical EngineeringEducation', 'Training High Technology Managers', 'professional Development Programs atBauman Moscow State Technical University'.The third series of workshops included the following meetings: "Training Engineers andScientists in Korea Universities', 'Challenges of Project Based Learning in Chemistry, PetroleumChemistry and Petroleum Refinery', 'Problems of Science Philosophy'.The fourth series of workshops included the following meetings: 'Developing EngineeringCompetencies in New Professional Virtual Learning Environment', 'Professional and PublicAccreditation of Educational Programs in Engineering and Technology', 'History and Prospectsof Process System Engineering', 'Problems and Prospects of US Chemical EngineeringEducation'.In total, over 650 faculty members participate in professional development programs at KNRTUannually. In addition to professional development programs, all-Russian and international scaleevents, series of workshops, KNRTU also runs PhD and Postdoctoral Programs in Education,including 'Theory and methods in teaching' chemistry' and 'Theory and methods of professionaleducation'. In the last 20 years, over 200 PhD thesis in education were defended in KNRTU.Engineering pedagogy has always been among the priorities of KNRTU. In 1994, KNRTUfounded one of the first Russian Centers of Engineering pedagogy. This is the largest RussianCenter, the flagman of engineering pedagogy, accredited by International Society forEngineering Education (IGIP) as number 2 of 14 Russian centers with a license to run'International Engineering Educator ING-PAED' program. The founder of this center wasAcademician of Russian Academy of Education Anatoly Kirsanov.Thus, Russian engineering universities run a wide range of professional development programsfor engineering faculty. The mandatory requirement for the faculty members is to participate inat least one program in every three years. In fact, the opportunities provide much more chances,and the majority of faculty use them regularly.Bibliography[1] [Higher Technical Education as an Instrument of Innovative Development: Scientific School Proceedings].Edited by V.G. Ivanov, V.V. Kondratyev. Kazan National Research Technological University. – 158 p. [In Russ.][2] Dyakonov, G.S. (2013) [Global Tasks of Engineering Education and Training Engineers in National ResearchUniversity].Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii [Higher education in Russia]. No.12, pp.35-40. (in Russ., abstract in Eng.)[3] Dyakonov, G.S. et al. (2013) [Training Engineers in Real Virtual Environment of Advanced Learning] KazanNational Research Technological University. – 404 p. [In Russ.][4] Ivanov V.G., Kondratyev V.V., Kaybiyaynen A.A. (2013) [Modern Problems of Engineering Education:Summary of International Conferences and Scientific School].Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii [Higher education inRussia]. No.12, pp.66-77. (in Russ., abstract in Eng.)[5] Engineering Education for New Industrial Development: Proceedings and Program of International ScientificSchool (2013). edited by V.G. Ivanov, V.V. Kondratyev. Kazan. – 296 p. [In Russ.][6] New Challenges of Engineering Education for Gas and Petrochemical Complex in the Context of Russia’sAccession to the World Trade Organization (WTO): Proceedings and Program of International Scientific School(2012). edited by V.G. Ivanov, V.V. Kondratyev. Kazan. – 280 p. [In Russ.][7] Proceedings of 2013 16th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning, ICL 2013; Kazan;Russian Federation; 25 September 2013 through 27 September 2013. – 889 p.