Viewing the urgent need to enhance mathematics and science education in schools and the acute shortage of qualified teachers, Technion has recently called upon students and graduates from all faculties to study the B.Sc. degree in Education in Science and Technology, and offered them scholarships. Many candidates are interested in masters and doctoral studies. The change in the number and quality of students has led to the need to upgrade the content and pedagogy of our courses. This talk will focus on our initiatives to advance the teacher education program in mechanical engineering. The initiatives are largely based on the CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) approach which has been developed and widely implemented for reforming engineering education programs. The CDIO approach proposes ways to integrate learning engineering fundamentals with practice in solving real engineering problems. We will present our experience of using it to integrate knowledge of engineering and pedagogical fundamentals with knowledge of teaching practices.
