Reengineering Engineering Education: Developing a Constructively aligned Learning-by-Doing Pedagogical Model for 21st Century Education

With the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) strict 2013 call for Emiratisation, UAE Vision 2021, sees a higher education environment where students will "enrich their minds with the skills that their nation needs to fuel its knowledge economy". In answer to this, Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), a UAE public college system, mandated the practice of "Learning-bydoing",(LBD), at the heart of its strategic plan for years 2012-2017. However, with the plan already a year into its implementation, no formal investigation has been done on how LBD is being implemented and the extent to which classes, syllabi, and curricula abide to it. Additionally, the researcher argues that if HCT is to act on its "commitment to aligning its academic programs with specific industry needs to meet market demands," then the inclusion of 21st century skills into its curricula cannot be overlooked. This work intends to investigate the general question: "What constructively aligned learning-bydoing pedagogical model incorporating 21st century skills can be developed for teaching engineering subjects in Higher College of Technology, UAE?". Taking a pragmatic stand, a mixed method convergent parallel design will be employed. To get a complete picture, inputs coming from its major stakeholders, will be investigated. Student survey, instructors and dean structured interviews, overt class observation and syllabi examination will be utilized for data triangulation. Ultimately, the paper aims to develop a collaborative LBD model tailor-fitted to the institution's engineering program and to UAE's culture.