Cooperative Learning Approach to Delivering Professional Modules to Bachelor and Master Students: TPU Experience

Abstract

Modern tendencies in engineering education set certain requirements on the competences to be obtained. To enable a future engineer to work at a highly competitive level and become an internationally recognized specialist, they must possess advanced English speaking and writing skills. At present most universities introduce educational programs that attract bright domestic and international students to ensure that they are in demand at the global market. The Strategic Program on Competitiveness Enhancement of National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University proposes that modules of professional training should be developed and delivered in English as a language of instruction so that the quality of teaching could be raised. To develop their own approaches to teaching, improve their language proficiency and develop courses and their elements in English, TPU teachers are to meet these challenging requirements and design course documentation and teaching aids, and engage modern teaching approaches in order to ensure high quality work with student groups which are often mixed in their abilities in both professional subjects and language proficiency levels. This paper addresses the course "Professional Training in English" which was developed upon completion of the joint program of TPU and the University of Southampton "Delivering through the Medium of English" and has successfully been delivered to bachelor students with the major "Oil and Gas Engineering" using the cooperative learning approach. The cooperative learning approach has proved to be one of the most successful in terms of teaching professional English to groups of students with mixed abilities.