Comparative analyses of discourse in specialized STEM school classes

ABSTRACT

The authors detail the discourse patterns observed within mathematics and science classes at specialized STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) high schools. Analyses reveal that teachers in mathematics classes tended to engage their students in authoritative discourse while teachers in science classes tended to engage students in dialogic discourse. The authors examined variations in the type of discourse in relationship to the discipline being taught, the educational level of the teacher, and course requirements were also explored.     

Gender neutral engineering: an impossible dream? ‐ the case of Eastern Europe

A total of 189 engineers, both students and qualified engineers of both sexes at two universities in Bulgaria, were given a questionnaire addressing the issue of why such a high proportion of engineers in Bulgaria were women compared with Britain. Answers were both fixed answer and open ended. The responses stressed the importance of the need for women to work for economic reasons and the role of the previous (communist) system in emphasizing the importance of both engineering and gender equity in its policies, including its educational policy. Qualified engineers were slightly more ready to stress these ‘system’ factors than student engineers. Engineering in Bulgaria had not been altered in any way which would take account of Western feminist criticism of engineering, but was perceived as being taught more theoretically and via lectures than in Britain. A contemporary strong switch away from engineering into economics and business was perceived. It is not clear yet whether gender neutral engineering will survive in Bulgaria.     

Teaching and Assessing Critical Thinking Abilities as Outcomes in an Informal Logic Course

I provide a theoretical framework to show that courses in informal logic can be taught developmentally to focus on a critical thinking practical component. However, efforts must be made to state clear outcomes, such that the content and processes of the course are tailored to achieve the outcomes, and clear criteria are provided for students' learning and assessment of their performance. This framework is an attempt to respond indirectly to the distinction between informal logic and critical thinking, and the concern that informal logic courses only teach abstract principles of reasoning and do not focus on requisite critical thinking abilities, which are contextualised to subject matter. I suggest a plausible connection between critical thinking and informal logic: that learning logical principles of reasoning is necessary, but not sufficient to think critically; there is an extra element which involves learning to apply the principles to various contexts.     

Theme D: interaction between engineering education and industrial development

Within a conference devoted to the interaction between engineering education and society, it was only natural to give a place to the contribution of engineering education to industrial development. This rich and undoubtedly delicate topic has been dealt with from three viewpoints:

— the contribution of educational establishments to the actualization of engineers' technological knowledge.

— the participation of industry in the precise definition of curricula.

— the contribution of engineering education to the industrial growth of developing countries.     

Value creation in the engineering enterprise: an educational perspective

ABSTRACT

This position paper sets out to examine value creation in the engineering enterprise, a process that has mostly been associated with innovation and entrepreneurs. An analysis of the literature on engineering value creation in business studies, engineering and engineering education publications shows that there has been surprisingly little empirical study and thus the means by which most engineers contribute value is unclear in the literature. Analysis of published data and data from studies by the authors in engineering workplaces in Australia, South East Asia and Portugal suggests that the work performed by most engineers has little to do with innovation. Based on these data the authors identify 14 ways in which engineers create value. An important finding is that routine engineering performances by a majority of engineers, not associated with innovation or entrepreneurial activities, not only can be shown to create value, but also to protect accumulated value from inadvertent destruction. The paper outlines the educational implications of these findings and proposes measures that engineering educators can adopt to improve the understanding of engineering graduates about engineering value creation.     

Engineers React: what they think about psychology

This exploratory study generates questions and considers emerging themes concerning psychology in engineering education. Psychologists frequently tell engineers what they think. This paper is designed for engineers to tell psychologists what they think. Information gained from engineer response suggests possibilities for both research and organisational change. Results generate significant questions for further investigation. What psychology courses are of interest or relevance to engineers? What underlying factors contribute to the differences in the approaches of engineers' and psychologists' thinking? Is there a systematic effort to create possibilities in scheduling for more than one course? Have strategies for managing the prerequisite sequence in psychology been explored?     

《工程制图》课程教学法研究

工程制图是工科学生必修的一门重要的技术基础课程，是现代大学教育的重要“基石”，是学生学好专业知识和提高综合素质的重要环节，它对工科学生的基本技能和思维创新的培养起着重要的作用。从教学内容、教学方法和教学手段等方面进行研究，提出了具体的教学改革思路。     

Does engineering education need to engage more with the economic and social aspects of sustainability?

This paper questions if engineering educators are producing engineers that are accelerating humanity along an unsustainable path. Even though technology and engineering are important drivers in trying to move humanity towards an environmentally sustainable paradigm, the paper suggests that maybe the most important levers and challenges lie in the economic and social domains. Short case studies of energy efficiency, the experience of the industrialist Ray Anderson and the authors own reflection of teaching chemical engineering students are used to highlight this. Engineering/technological innovation may not be enough and is often counteracted by the rebound effect and the current dominant neoclassical economic paradigm. The paper discusses what engineering educators can do to produce sustainability informed engineers who are better able to engage with the economic and social dimensions of sustainability. Some suggestions for engaging engineering students with the economic and social dimensions of environmental sustainability are provided. Engineers must somehow find ways, not just to influence technological levers (which are very important) but also to influence economic and social levers so that changes in economic and social behaviours can complement and facilitate technological change in moving humanity to an environmentally sustainable paradigm.     

Parabolic Teaching and the Furnishing of Realism in the Teaching of Business Studies

RESUMé

In a development of the case study method, a business course has been taught as a series of engineering business cases, with elements of realism engendered by the use of senior engineering managers as moderators of the case discussion. By this means, consideration of the various facets of the cases may proceed in an environment where comment and criticism derive from a lifetime of real experience. It has been found that crucial elements in the successful development of this course have been the identification of a suitable cadre of moderators, their briefing in the organization and evaluation of the case study presentation and discussion, and the assurance that their experience was shared around the group.

Un cours, constitué d'une serie de cas vécus de gestion d'enterprises à caractere technique est enseign eacute; et etudié par des groupes constitués jusqu' à 12étudients. L'element de realism est apporté par des directeurs de divisions techniques intervenant comme modérateurs dans la discussion du dossier. Ainsi, l'étude sefait dans un environnement ou les commentaries et les critiques proviennet d'une longue experience, et non pas simplement de théories en ce moment à la mode. On a trouve que leséléments vitaux dans le succes de ce cours ontété un choix méticuleux des intervenants, leur préparation a l'organisation et l' évaluation de la presentation et de la discussion du dossier, et l'assurance que leur experience soit partag ée au sein du groupe.     

How education background affects design outcome: teaching product development to mechanical engineers,industrial designers and managers

ABSTRACT

Product design and development (PDD) is a current topic of academic and industrial research. Emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as design thinking and creativity has been recently pulled together into the teaching and research on PDD. This paper looks into a multidisciplinary setting made up of three similar but independent PDD masters courses taught at three higher education institutions, having the same assessment, syllabus, assignments and outcomes. As expected, students’ projects foci are different. The outcomes of this experience were confronted with an ex-post literature review, which generated thorough guidelines that supported an innovative proposal for PDD education, to be implemented into an interdisciplinary Summer School. Significant generalisable contributions for educating modern engineers, designers and business entrepreneurs are expected, instead of just teaching methods of engineering, design and entrepreneurship at the case universities. The limitation of the used inductive reasoning concerns ‘truth’ being suggested but not assured.     

The Development and Marketing of Business Seminars by Universities: Participant Format Preferences

ABSTRACT

Institutions of higher education are becoming increasingly dependent on external seminars to corporate employees as a means of meeting a growing number of business needs. As the variety of seminars expands, questions concerning the optimal seminar format must be addressed. The current, empirical study investigates seminar format preferences based on survey respondents' managerial level. Input is analyzed from three levels of manager: executives, mid-level managers, and supervisors. The results of the study indicate that there are certain strong preferences which managers at all levels share in regard to seminar format. In addition, several significant differences exist between the preferences of managers at the three organizational levels. Recommendations are given as to how universities can best develop and market seminars to the business public.     

The road not taken: Frank Aydelotte and the thought approach to engineering writing

Frank Aydelotte's English and Engineering (1917) is one of the first anthologies in technical communication. Developed at MIT, this book attempted to broaden the education of undergraduate engineering students by using the tenets of the thought movement. This movement, which Aydelotte first articulated while directing Indiana University's first‐year English program, modified for universities in the United States the education that he had received at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Rather than emphasizing matters of form and correctness, the thought approach required engineering students to think and write about issues important to their education and future careers.     

Practical Object‐Oriented Software Engineering Education

This article describes the effort undertaken at the University of Iowa to institute a software engineering curriculum at the graduate level. Specifically, the article presents the experiences over 2 years in developing a pilot 2‐semester course in object‐oriented software engineering. This pilot course had the goal of introducing practical and realistic object‐oriented software engineering to students, and developed several innovative techniques to achieve this goal on a very limited budget. Students were exposed to realistic software engineering phases, processes and methodologies in developing real‐world software. This pilot course has culminated in a Master of Science subtrack in Software Engineering offered cooperatively by the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iowa, which made its debut in the Fall of the 1992/1993 academic year.     

Guidelines for Engineering Teachers Concerning educating the Engineer for Innovative and Entrepreneurial Activity[1]

The paper is in 3 parts. Part I emphasises that the concept of design is fundamental in innovation. Contrary to deductive reasoning, which allows for only one good solution, design, which is a type of reductive reasoning, allows for many different solutions and therefore plays an essential role in design. Decisions require always both factual and normative information, and also risk taking. It is argued that complex design problems require both creativity and method. Two most important methodic tools are the basic design cycle and the structural model of the industrial innovation process

Part II describes in outlines the work of the (late) SEFI-Working group on Innovation. Its results are published in two booklets: The Guidelines for Engineering Teachers and the working group's Final Report, both obtainable from SEFI headquarters at Brussels. In the guidelines seven main educational means for improving the innovativeness and entrepreneurial capabilities of engineers are identified. Of each of the means proposed a definition was given, the objectives were stipulated, the guidelines formulated and the considerations leading to them described.

Part III describes as an illustration to the former parts the innovation-management stream in the curriculum of the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. The faculty offers a master's degree course in industrial design engineering. As the design character of innovation is fully recognised, the teaching of innovation management roots in design methodology. The innovation-management stream starts already in the first year of the curriculum and increases to 40% of the course time in the third year. If students choose an innovation management subject as master's thesis project (which 20 to 30% actually do) they devote 75% of their time to innovation management in the 4th year. The teaching of innovation management consists on the one hand of a series of lectures in each year of the curriculum, and on the other hand on exercises and design projects. The major design project preceding the master's project, and which is compulsory for all students, is executed in a real industrial setting, and contains an important innovation management component

The faculty has developed a computerised innovation management game, which demonstrates the complete industrial innovation process in a very comprehensive form. It is used as a teaching tool and forms one of the exercises that support the lectures. There is overwhelming interest for the course in industrial design engineering, certainly partly because of its innovation management content, but because of capacity limitations entrance is limited to 250 students yearly.     

Futurising science education: students’ experiences from a course on futures thinking and quantum computing

To promote students’ value-based agency, responsible science and sustainability, science education must address how students think about their personal and collective futures. However, research has shown that young people find it difficult to fully relate to the future and its possibilities, and few studies have focused on the potential of science education to foster futures thinking and agency. We report on a project that further explored this potential by developing future-oriented science courses drawing on the field of futures studies. Phenomenographic analysis was used on interview data to see what changes upper-secondary school students saw in their futures perceptions and agentic orientations after attending a course which adapted futures thinking skills in the context of quantum computing and technological approaches to global problems. The results show students perceiving the future and technological development as more positive but also more unpredictable, seeing their possibilities for agency as clearer and more promising (especially by identifying with their peers or aspired career paths), and feeling a deeper connection to the otherwise vague idea of futures. Students also felt they had learned to question deterministic thinking and to think more creatively about their own lives as well as technological and non-technological solutions to global problems. Both quantum physics and futures thinking opened new perspectives on uncertainty and probabilistic thinking. Our results provide further validation for a future-oriented approach to science education, and highlight essential synergies between futures thinking skills, agency, and authentic socio-scientific issues in developing science education for the current age.

     

How engineers perceive the importance of ethics in Finland

Success in complex and holistic engineering practices requires more than problem-solving abilities and technical competencies. Engineering education must offer proficient technical competences and also train engineers to think and act ethically. A technical ‘engineering-like’ focus and demand have made educators and students overlook the importance of ethical awareness and transversal competences. Using two Finnish surveys, conducted in 2014 and 2016, we examine how engineers perceive working life needs regarding ethics. The data consider different age groups. We research whether an engineer’s age affects their perception of the importance of ethics in their work and if there are differences between young experts and young managers in their use of ethics within work. The results indicate that practising engineers do not consider ethical issues important in their work. This especially applies to younger engineers; the older an engineer, the more important they consider ethics. No statistically significant difference was found between young engineering experts and managers.     

Analysis of macroethics teaching practices and perceptions in engineering: a cultural comparison

ABSTRACT

Students must be taught to understand the ethical issues associated with engineering and technology, which includes microethics and macroethics. This research examined the influence of cultural environment by comparing ethics-related education outcomes between educators in (1) the United States, (2) non-US Anglo, and (3) Western European countries who teach engineering students. In an increasingly globalised world where companies and projects draw from talent across countries, it is important to understand how different cultures educate future engineers about their ethical responsibilities. Survey results revealed that a majority of educators in all three groups viewed undergraduate and postgraduate education on ethics as insufficient. A higher percentage of non-US Anglo and Western European educators taught sustainability and environmental issues in their courses compared to US respondents. US educators taught codes of ethics, ethics in design, and safety more than those in Western Europe. Open-ended responses illuminated challenges and opportunities to improve ethics education.     

Comparing Student Evaluations of Distance Learning and Standard Classroom Courses in Graduate Social Work Education

Abstract

This study compared the student course evaluations of standard education and distance learning courses in the school of social work of one southern university. The sample included 14 distance learning (DL) and 122 standard education courses. A 20-item quantitative student course evaluation and a 7-item qualitative questionnaire were used to compare differences between social work courses taught in a standard classroom setting with those taught using distance learning technology. Comparisons of identical courses taught in both formats found that students rated distance learning higher than the standard classroom for a course having predominantly lecture content. Conversely, ratings for clinical practice courses were just the opposite with lower ratings for distance learning than the standard classroom. Results of a qualitative survey (n = 39) of students conducted at the end of a course taught by distance learning found that 73% of the students felt that distance learning technology interfered with class participation. However, 73% of the students felt the instructor handled technological problems in a professional and patient manner. Although 54% of the students reported that they would take another course by distance learning, more research is needed to determine what social work courses can be most effectively taught by distance and classroom formats.     

Revising General Education Math Courses with Partner Discipline Input

Abstract

The authors describe working with partner disciplines during the process of updating mathematics courses for the general education quantitative literacy requirement. The conversations resulted in significant changes to the business calculus course and a rich listing of applications to be incorporated into the college algebra course from technical fields such as industrial design, exercise science, and building science.