Analyzing the Dynamic Shifts of Teaching Focus in Engineering Education Using Bibliometrics--A Case Study on Mineral Processing Major

Abstract

Abstract-The education contents of different engineering majors have varied greatly, and each specific major has its own discretion of professional curriculum establishment. How to objectively probe the advances of majors and make right use of this decision-making power is an essential link in the comprehensive education reform of engineering majors. The shifts of professional education focus in engineering majors were obtained by analyzing related bibliometrics. First a hierarchical classification of professional literature related to a specific major is formed, and the literature number of each group in the hierarchical classification is recorded in a chronological sequence, then the relationship between the literature number and time is established by mathematical regressions, subsequently the drifting pattern of key knowledge points within the major being deduced in the form of quantitative models, which enable us to objectively discover shifts of education focus in the engineering major and sensibly facilitate arranging curriculums and amending/compiling textbooks, modulating teaching and experiments. This method was applied in the mineral processing major.