Tradition and Innovation in Teaching Structural Design in Civil Engineering

This paper briefly reviews the history of structural engineering education: The dawn, development, and consolidation of traditional education systems, as well as their fall into decline in the contemporary technological world. Recent graduates in civil engineering do not have all of the skills and knowledge that the labor market is demanding and civil engineering is losing the social prestige and professional recognition that our profession deserves. It is necessary to improve traditional education systems to produce the best civil engineers. The writers present a detailed discussion of their experiences teaching structural design at the School of Civil Engineering of Ciudad Real, Spain, using project-based and cooperative learning methods, as well as implementing knowledge management and transference to the learning process. Results and costs of these methods, as well as the problems related to faculty selection, are set out. The paper concludes with a reflection on the major educational possibilities and historical opportunities presented through the introduction of these new methods and suggest that this is the best way to combine engineering education and practice.