Promoting higher engineering education: Three‐level progressive cultivation of mechanical thinking based on multi‐classroom integration

Abstract

AbstractTo improve students' ability to solve complex engineering problems, cultivate their advanced mechanical thinking, and promote higher engineering education, in this paper, a reform of the teaching mode with the goal of advanced mechanical thinking cultivation and output orientation is carried out, and a three‐level theoretical mechanics teaching method based on multi‐classroom integration is proposed by adopting the concept of progressive cultivation of mechanical thinking. The meaning of three different levels of mechanics thinking, primary, intermediate, and advanced, and the implementation strategy of the three‐level progressive cultivation of mechanical thinking are clarified. An online and offline blended teaching method based on multi‐classroom integration is designed. The effectiveness of the proposed teaching method is verified by the combination of the evaluation of the examination score, the achievement of course objectives, and students' learning satisfaction. The results show that the final evaluation score in 2022 is 17.4% higher than that in 2021, and the score distribution shows a skewed distribution, with most students' scores skewing toward the excellent range, indicating that after adopting this teaching method, different students can eventually have similar excellent learning outcomes even though they start learning with different foundations and abilities. In addition, the three‐course objectives in 2022 are achieved at high degrees of 78.3, 81.5, and 81.3, respectively, which are significantly higher than those in 2021. Meanwhile, the questionnaire results show that students are satisfied with the teaching method, which fully proves that the teaching mode can achieve good teaching effectiveness.