Earlier investigations showed that many academics obtain information pertaining their own field of science from the general massmedia, such as newspapers. Who are those scientists? Is there a relation between the social engagement and the use of non-specialist information sources? We investigated the social engagement of biologists and engineers in correlation to their use of general massmedia in the Netherlands. Biologists find their work social significant, most of engineers do not. Many biologists are members of non-specialist organizations, subscribe to non-specialist journals about science and participate in non-scietific activities related to their work. Most engineers do not. Many members of both groups (biologists and engineers) use non-specialist informations sources like general science magazines and national newspapers to obtain information about their own field of science. And most biologists and engineers did so to obtaqn information about new developments in their own field and in related fields. We did not find any correlation between the social engagement of scientists and their use of non-specialist information sources. Most scientists use them.
The profound societal impacts of technological developments call for a drastic change in the education of engineers. The paper describes the development of training practice at the University of Twente, where a programme of more or less disciplinary philosophy and social science courses for engineers is evolving towards increasing integration with the technical curricula. This transformation is described by paying attention to the content of programmes and courses in philosophy and social sciences for engineering students, to their institutional context and management, and to trends in appraisal of these courses by students as well as by faculty. The latter topic is treated by using data derived from evaluations carried out on a regular basis. The development described reveals a trend from broad, general philosophy and social sciences courses for all engineering students towards specialized courses treating the societal trends and concerns which relate specifically to the technical domains of the separate engineering departments of the university.
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