The relatively poor social standing of the engineering profession in Australia relative to other major professions, and its general inability to attract both a higher proportion of women as well as a high caliber of more intellectually able young people, has been of concern to both the profession and engineering educators. This paper argues that this is due to the unclear perceptions of the engineering profession as being "hard hat" and highly technical in nature; a perception which is at odds with the realities of the world of engineering practice, where the application of broad knowledge and an understanding of the human dimension of engineering enterprise is required. These realities are not generally reflected by the engineering curricula at Australia universities. In many schools there is an excessive emphasis on highly technical matters in engineering curricula, which excludes not only greater technical diversity but also the skills and knowledge of human affairs necessary in engineering practice. An analysis shows that despite many recommendations in Australia for a greater emphasis on social sciences and humanities in engineering curricula, the expansion in these non-technical areas has been slow to take anchor within the schools, departments and faculties of engineering in Australia. It is argued that this is essentially a problem of the academic culture operating within engineering schools and faculties in Australia, which is based on scientific norms derived from science. Finally the idea of cultural change within engineering schools and departments is explored.
Unlike curricula in professional courses such as medicine and law which are focused on specific discourses such as health and justice respectively, engineering curricula at Australian universities lack, by and large, a unifying ideology. In general schools and faculties of engineering at Australian universities have failed to address this issue and resisted calls for change in professional engineering education curricula. This can be attributed to the philosophical perception about engineering, and the introduction of problem-based delivery in engineering schools at Victoria University has opened a door for not only placing greater focus on constructivist learning but also on rethinking engineering knowledge itself. The reality that many professional engineering graduates not only diffuse across a range of technical areas but also integrate technical material within social, cultural, and environmental frameworks can be embodied into the new course delivery. This paper is concerned with the development of a multidisciplinary subject syllabus in Chemistry and Materials Technology with an emphasis on, to what Felder and Brent 1 refer as, independent and contextual knowing. Preliminary student feedback has been fairly mixed with many students feeling more comfortable with the traditional passive and prescriptive approach whereas other students were very positive and indicated that the new approach has been responsible for their decision to continue with their enrolment in engineering.
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