Communication Education for Students in the Science and Engineering Majors based on the Process of Value and Attitude Changes of Students by Debate

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to suggest the communication education for students in the science and engineering majors. The main characteristic of the curriculum is the process of value and attitude changes of students by debate. It is effective to cultivate well-balanced manner and matter which take significant role in any communication. The lectures provide debate training to match the proficiency of the students in order to foster thinking ability step-by-step. In the department of electrical engineering of Fukuoka Institute of the Technology, the expert of the communication and the expert of the electrical engineering team-teach the course as one of the specialized subjects. This system provides both training of technique of constructing argument and professional assessment on their contents, which it calls “two wheels of one cart”. The lectures are organized to develop students' incentive to learn with ARCS model. The questionnaires show that the communication skills acquired through debates are applied in the scenes of the real problem solving. 90% of the students reply that the series of lectures are useful and produce satisfactory results. Therefore, the proposed education is confirmed to be effective to enhance the communication skills of students.