فصلنامه آموزش مهندسی ایران
پیاپی 59 (پاییز 1392)

Curriculum development and changing it is one of the main challenges in various fields of studies and has different approaches and outcomes. However, systematic approach to curriculum development, due to its systematic nature, is more effective than other approaches. Increased content of knowledge in the field of engineering education, needs to use the best approaches to select the best curriculum. In this paper, first we examine the curriculum and systems approach to it and then we described this approach in engineering education’ curriculum development. Models introduced in this field indicates that the curriculum planners of engineering education in curriculum subsystems such as input, process, output and feedback and revision require to consider the various factors to achieve the best results in the designed curriculum. These models are helpful to develop better curricula for various courses and majors in Iranian engineering education and provide good ideas for curriculum developers in engineering education, in order to replace the traditional approach with more effective approaches in the curriculum development.

Due to the advancement in technology and globalization, only those institutions can excel which are providing quality education and constructive environment to their students. It is obvious that these factors can influence their satisfaction from higher education. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between offered education services and students’ satisfaction from higher education. The study used the descriptive- correlation method. The participants in this study were educational science students of Tehran, Shahid Beheshty, Amir Kabir and Kharazmi Universities. 370 university students were selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected by two self- designed questionnaires: 1) students’ satisfaction from higher education 2) offered education services in university. Data were analyzed using Pearson and step-by-step regression correlation technique. The results showed that there was significant relationship between dimensions of offered education services and students’ satisfaction from higher education. The step-by-step regression analysis indicated that teachers’ expertise is the most influential factor among all the variables. It is significant predictor of students’ satisfaction from higher education in a simple and complex form. Courses offered, learning environment and classroom facilities are significant predictor of students’ satisfaction from higher education in complex form.

People are the most important capital of an organization, they play an important role to achieve organizational goals. Hence, organizations to achieve desirable efficiency and effectiveness, are looking for competent people who are qualified in terms of ability, skills and behavioral characteristics (personality) to meet the job requirements. Fitness between job and personality in the country in general and engineers in particular, has effects such as increased efficiency, increased job satisfaction, increased harmony with the job, increased career success, lower desertion and reduced job burnout. So the lack of structured and clear pattern are the missing links in the process of selection and absorption specialists for the job. The study is a quantitative - descriptive research, based on the survey of experts in the subject (stakeholders of engineering occupations), who were selected through purposive sampling. In this study, the relationship between 15 fields of engineers job (regardless of the type discipline that been studied), with sixteen types of personality of Myers- Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) are investigated. Each of these types has been achieved by compounding two poles of the four personality dimensions. Finally a personality typology model of engineering occupation fields is developed.

The importance of training and curriculum and the necessity of curriculum as a tool, especially in engineering education, is undeniable. As a result, being standard and up-to-date for presenting a high quality and comprehensive curriculum is not avoidable. Curriculum is a program of the types, numbers and units of courses that students in different fields and levels are obliged to pass. These curricula should be revised to promote the quality of education in the country, according to the social and political conditions of the society and the world, to achieve the highest quality of educated students. In this article we are looking for a model for “curriculum". So a proper methodology for understanding our customers’ needs in creation and design of the curriculum is essential. In this study, according to the high performance of the QFD tool for understanding customer's needs and becoming the voice of the customer to technical specifications, we choose this tool and use it for a case study in the industrial engineering major. As a result the importance of changing some curricula is derived: "Creating software topics" and "the inclusion of practical projects". These changes included, and also in some other lessons ascending the course of those lessons and the inclusion of new topics are other conclusions that are derived from the QFD-based model.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the fitness of the intended environmental curriculum against Environmental Sustainable Development standards in fields of Civil, Architectural, and Agricultural Engineering. The sample of this study includes the professors and students of these fields at Shiraz University. In this study the total number of professors and 320 students (selected in a cluster selection method) were considered. The methodology is descriptive and of a survey format. Tools consist of three scales: 1- In order to prioritize the importance of the environmental principles of the intended curriculum, the survey sheets were designed according to the seven principles of Environmental Sustainable Development (Rose Hulman Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University,1997-1999); 2- In order to prioritize the students’ views on the importance of environmental principles of implemented courses on environment, a scale was invented, considering the miner’s inventory (1997) and seven principles of Environmental Sustainable Development; and 3- In order to prioritize the students’ views on the environmental principles of experienced courses on environment, a scale was designed, using the seven principles of Environmental Sustainable Development, by researcher. The first scale was distributed among the professors while the second and third scales were distributed among the students. The results indicate that: 1- The average importance of principles of intended courses on environment was less than the importance of Environmental Sustainable Development standards; 2- The average importance of principles of implemented courses on environment was less than the importance

Nowadays, in order to conserve and revival of monuments and historic-cultural sites and training human requirements some courses were designed in Iran universities. The most important course of these bachelor and master courses is the master of restoration of historic monuments and sites. In attention to the little experience of Iran universities in this course, the main questions of this article are: what are differences and similarities in curriculum of this course in Iran and other world great universities? Are there any changes in this course, influenced by new improvements of restoration science? The research method is comparative study of objectives, curriculums and units of this course in Iran and some similar and experienced courses in Europe and America, through the written documents. The conclusions are meaningful differences in defined objectives of these courses, separation the science of restoration of monuments from restoration of sites, attention to the cognition and study of historic monuments, the relative experimental sciences in conservation and interdisciplinary identity of restoration.

One of the introductory examples of scientific books and articles on relaxation oscillations is description of a tank containing a liquid and a siphon, which is known as Tantalus Cup. In this article, the author has shown that the origin of the cup can not be found in historical documents, and probably from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries this device has appeared in laboratory and educational centers in Europe as teaching instrument. However, the thirty-second design of Alheyalbook of Banu Musa actually defines the means with the same performance but more completely than Tantalus Cup. In this article, this device is called "hydraulic relaxation oscillator of Banu Musa". First the history of the book and the life of author, Ahmad ibn Musa ibn Shaker Khorasani, is briefly stated. Thereafter, the historical and scientific record of Tantalus Cup is studied and the performance of the Cup is also described. Finally, Banu Musa's hydraulic oscillator based on relaxation is described in detail. The article claims that Banu Musa was the first engineer who used the relaxation oscillator in a mechanical device.