A Model of Empathy in Engineering as a Core Skill, Practice Orientation, and Professional Way of Being

Walther, Joachim; Miller, Shari E.; Sochacka, Nicola W.

doi:10.1002/jee.20159

Cited by 201 publications

(180 citation statements)

References 88 publications

(143 reference statements)

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“…To this end, we have established a long term working relationship between engineering and social work to develop a context-appropriate and intellectually robust, theoretical understanding of empathy in engineering [12] and, in parallel, practical educational interventions to explicitly foster empathy in engineering students [13,14] . Below, we briefly outline the results of our prior theoretical development efforts, which informed the design of the four empathy modules we implemented into the sophomore engineering and society class.…”

Section: The Need For Empathy In Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The development of the model was also informed by a critical synthesis of the literature pertaining to empathy in the fields of social work and engineering. In the following paragraphs, we summarize the key features of the model and direct our readers to [12] for a detailed account of the model development and its theoretical underpinnings. The model in Figure 1 comprises three dimensions that illustrate dynamically interrelated and integrated facets of empathy in the context of engineering.…”

Section: A Context-appropriate and Intellectually Robust Model Of Empmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fostering Empathy in an Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Course

Walther¹,

Miller²,

Sochacka³

et al.

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Shari E. Miller is an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses broadly on social work education and the social work profession with specific areas ranging from educational innovation, thinking in and for social work, development of theory, inter-and trans-disciplinary and inter-professional education and practice, and professional socialization. She has experience teaching across the social work education continuum, with an emphasis on theory, practice, and the relationship between theory, research, and practice. She is engaged in an ongoing collaborative research program with colleagues from engineering to develop inter-disciplinary approaches to education for reflective inter-professional practice in a global society. She also collaborates with colleagues from multiple disciplines on community engaged projects focused on sustainability.Dr. Nicola W. Sochacka, University of Georgia Dr. Nicola W. Sochacka received her doctorate in Engineering Epistemologies from the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2011. She is currently a member of the CLUSTER research group at the University of Georgia where she holds a research and teaching position. Nicola's areas of research interest include: STEAM (STEM + Art) education, diversity, interpretive research quality, the role of empathy in engineering education and practice, and student reflection. Mr. Michael Alvin Brewer jr., University of Georgia University of Georgia c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016Fostering empathy in an undergraduate mechanical engineering course AbstractEngineers are increasingly being called upon to infuse a deeply considered, empathic regard for a broad range of stakeholders into their work. This development can be attributed to a growing recognition of the socially-situated nature of engineering practice and the shared and interdisciplinary nature of today's grand challenges. In order to prepare engineers to more effectively address these challenges, we contend that empathic ways of interacting with others need to be explicitly fostered in undergraduate engineering programs. Pedagogical approaches to teach empathy to engineering students, however, are limited. In this paper, we describe the development and pilot implementation of a set of four empathy modules that we integrated into a sophomore mechanical engineering course (n=110) at a large state university. We used a theoretically-grounded, context-specific model for empathy in engineering, which conceptualizes empathy as a teachable and learnable skill, a critically reflected-upon practice orientation, and a professional way of being, as the basis for developing the modules. Drawing on detailed observation notes and critical reflections, we provide an account of how the modules were received by the students and the lessons we learned with the view to further refining the modules for future iterations. In parallel, we discuss early insights concerning the potential impact of integrating explic...

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Section: The Need For Empathy In Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Context-appropriate and Intellectually Robust Model Of Empmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering Empathy in an Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Course

Walther¹,

Miller²,

Sochacka³

et al.

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

Self Cite

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“…This type of activity helps to encourage a sense of friendship by allowing team members to learn about each other's personal lives such as hobbies, likes, dislikes, personal values, and culture. In getting to know others on a personal level, one can also simultaneously promote empathy and understanding, which has been identified as a core competency for Engineers to develop [24].…”

Section: Team Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing and Developing the Individual and Team Work Attribute

Hoffart¹,

Gibbard²,

O’Neill³

et al. 2017

PCEEA

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“…Students were instructed that their solution should extend the residents' current water supply as long as possible. Researchers in engineering design emphasize the need for empathic educational experiences [24] and incorporating global perspectives into engineering curricula [25], [26]. As such the design challenge focused on designing a product with social impact for a real-life crisis.…”

Section: Design Of Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Practica as Authentic Assessments in First-year Engineering Design Courses

McComb¹,

Berdanier²,

Menold³

2018

Preprint

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-This paper describes the design and evaluation of a novel assessment for first-year engineering design courses that is rooted in an authentic design challenge. This approach modifies the traditional written-exam approach typically found in engineering courses, which is inherently inauthentic and cannot easily capture the exploratory nature of engineering design. Our assessment improves alignment with common learning objectives found in first-year engineering design courses and additionally prepares students for the type of case study interviews that are increasingly common for entry-level engineering jobs. To evaluate our assessment, 50 first-year students completed the engineering design self-efficacy instrument once before beginning the assessment and a second time approximately 48 hours later upon completion of a reflection assignment. In addition, students retrospectively reported their perceived change in self-efficacy during the assessment. Analysis shows that students perceived a large retrospective increase in skill level, despite only a small increase in directly measured self-efficacy. These results are analyzed in light of the Dunning-Kruger effect and we posit that the assessment helps to align students' selfefficacy with their actual skill level. Increased alignment of self-efficacy with skill level may minimize student frustration when encountering challenging tasks in the future, potentially increasing retention of engineering students as well as facilitating the development of lifelong learning attitudes.

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A Model of Empathy in Engineering as a Core Skill, Practice Orientation, and Professional Way of Being

Abstract: Background Engineers are increasingly being asked to empathically engage with a broad range

Cited by 201 publications

References 88 publications

Fostering Empathy in an Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Course

Fostering Empathy in an Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Course

Assessing and Developing the Individual and Team Work Attribute

Design Practica as Authentic Assessments in First-year Engineering Design Courses

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