On deployment of effective instructional strategies: Students´ engagement through cooperative learning

Engineering education in the Arab Gulf States (the Region) faces significant challenges as it seeks to meet the demands on the engineering profession in the twenty first century. This paper focuses on classroom-based pedagogies of engagement, and cooperative learning strategies in particular. The paper is a follow up to previous work by the author, on viable strategies to improve the classroom environment of engineering colleges in the Region. At the start, the paper provides an overview of relevant benchmarks of engineering education in the Region. Then, relates author´s preliminary findings on teaching/learning practices in Region´s colleges, sheds light on the pros and cons of the lecture format, and examines the literature on substance of different active learning protocols, focusing on cooperative engagement strategies. Next, it identifies barriers to reformation in general, and to the use of modern pedagogical skills in particular. The paper also argues that any meaningful change in Region´s classroom practices (dominated by traditional lecture-based methods) should be supported by the university administration. What is necessary to create a change, is for the department or college, to have a comprehensive and feasible set of plans: articulated expectations, opportunities for faculty to learn about new pedagogies, and an equitable reward system.