Innovations in teaching methodology in geotechnical engineering

ENSoil mechanics is a basic subject for civil engineering students and not an easy one. In a discipline dealing with a very complex natural material, examples taken from the practical experience of the teacher or other documented case studies can represent quite often the best way for best understanding of geotechnical concepts. Perspective civil engineers should be given overall technical knowledge, but the present educational methods must obviously change: the trend to include more technical material in the undergraduate curriculum should be abandoned in favour of more understanding. Academic lectures have to include extensive exposure to such features as environmental problems and computational methods. From the Lithuanian universities the most representative ones delivering geotechnical education are Vilnius University and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.