How to Promote University Students to Innovative Use Renewable Energy? An Inquiry-Based Learning Course Model

This paper aims to explore a student-oriented curriculum model on Renewable Energy Sources (RES), since RES is an important solution to the energy problem, and training talents with relevant skills and qualities has become a key part of our overall energy strategy. Based on Taylor Principle and PDCA Cycle Theory (Plan, Do, Check, Act), this paper proposed a “Student-centered Inquiry” RES course model together with three reference templates for the design, teaching, and evaluation processes of the course. This dissertation conducted a case study on 27 students from China University of Petroleum (East China), and the primary purpose of the study was to find out how changes in the curriculum could affect the learning effects of both high achievement students and low achievement students. By adopting the paired T-test and independent T-test, the results indicated that: (a) There was a relationship between the new curriculum model and the students’ academic performance, (b) the improvement in low-achievement students was more significant than in high-achievement students, and (c) the new curriculum model has positive effects on students in terms of knowledge transfer, methodology, reductionism, and consciousness formation. In view of the limitations of current RES related education in universities, these results can be used as templates to improve the quality of RES education.