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I personally think it would be hard to do this but your concerns are
well taken and the need for a longitudinal study, which you seem to
be suggesting, is apparant. My gut feeling is that a carefully chosen
set of topics that are well-understood will hang around a great deal
longer than a broad set of topics covered superficially.
I tend to think of my job as more one of teaching reasoning skills
applicable across a broad range of problems than one of teaching
specific problem analysis techniques in great detail.
I don't teach
bridge design but I expect that the force and equilibrium ideas
taught in my class will assist my students in qualitative analysis of
their designs should they end up in that career.
I think educational innovation is fine, and there are many reasons for
trying new techniques. We must, however, be careful that we don't end up
producing graduates that are less competent some years later.
Roger
Paul J. Camp