The Impact of Accreditation

This chapter presents lierature that draws attention to several features that are cause for concern. It begins with an introduction to present developments in the regulation of the curriculum. The Bloom Taxonomy is the earliest expression of part of Tyler's theory of curriculum put into practice, although the idea of giving precision to the objectives of education can be traced back to Bobbitt in the early twentieth century. It is not possible to say that the term objectives has been substituted with the term outcomes because some writers continue to use term objectives. The US accreditation agency, ABET, uses both to the confusion of some engineering educators. Declaring objectives seems to imply that what we do with students will obtain those objectives: outcomes seem to imply an unwarranted certainty that that is what will happen. The chapter also explains outcomes-based engineering education, and mastery learning and personalized systems of instruction.