Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate engineering professors' perceptions on the key competencies for engineering students (i.e. creativity, problem solving, designing, field application, etc.) and their instructional efforts to promote the competencies. The guiding research questions included 1) to what extent engineering professors perceived the key competencies as the important qualification that engineering students should obtain in college, 2) to what extent the professors put in a great deal of effort to promote such competencies in their teaching, and 3) how their perceptions on the key competencies correlated with their instructional practice. Two hundred fifteen engineering professors affiliated to diverse fields voluntarily participated in the study and filled out 5 point-Likert scale survey items. In results, despite of some range of variation on their perceptions according to the fields, most of the engineering professors highly valued the four key competencies. However, compared to the perceptions, engineering professors in some engineering fields relatively less focused on promoting the competencies in their teaching practice.
