Course-Level Teaching Reform in Soil Mechanics Based on Engineering Decision Making

Abstract

Soil Mechanics is usually taught as a chain of related topics, yet a student can finish the calculations and laboratory exercises without ever connecting them to engineering judgment. This paper proposes a course-level teaching framework that ties soil behavior, evidence, decision making, and review together across eight core modules: soil classification, seepage, stress and effective stress, consolidation and settlement, shear strength, earth pressure, bearing capacity, and slope stability. Each module opens with a physical representation of the problem and then asks students to weigh assumptions, calculations, test results, and observations before settling on an engineering recommendation. Assessment draws on concept checks, numerical work, laboratory interpretation, short decision memos, and a cumulative coursework portfolio that preserves feedback and revision. A seepage lesson demonstrates the classroom process, moving from identification of a failure mechanism to the selection of control and monitoring measures. The paper also outlines a staged implementation and evaluation approach that rests on scenario assessments, student coursework and its revisions, and rubric-based evaluation.