Bringing in "The Social" : Resisting and Assisting Social Engagement in Engineering Education

Niles, Skye; Contreras, Santina; Roudbari, Shawhin; Kaminsky, Jessica; Harrison, Jill Lindsey

doi:10.1109/weef-gedc.2018.8629756

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This suggests that positivism may stand in the face of empathy-informed human-centred designing. Moreover, such rejections have been seen in the findings of Al Kakoun et al (2021a, b), where engineering students' social consciousness scores significantly declined when primed with empathy during a human-centred designing assignment, and in Niles et al (2018;2020), where engineering students showed resistance to social engagement and public welfare considerations. Data collected by Guanes et al (2022) revealed a disconnect between students expressing empathic approaches to engineering matter, which contrasted with the relative absence of adoption of empathic approaches in their capstone projects.…”

Section: Issue: Positivism In the Face Of Empathy And Perfectionism I...mentioning

confidence: 95%

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering

Al Kakoun,

Boy,

Xavier

2023

Res Eng Design

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Perfectionism is a personality trait associated with a desire for flawlessness, high-standard expectations and criticism of the self and others. As engineering design seeks to address more wicked problems that move beyond technical considerations, it is possible that engineers with perfectionism may struggle to engage flexibly with complexity and more creativity-focused solutions. The present study seeks to understand perfectionism prevalence in an undergraduate cohort of civil engineers and the impact of this trait on complex design decisions and engagements that include social as well as technical considerations. 184 civil engineering students were involved in this study. We found that 74.5% of the engineers classify as perfectionists, with 68.5% of these perfectionists being maladaptive. Further, we examined how perfectionism associated with Communal Designs, a design approach that aims to meet physical community needs as well as more metaphysical, empathy-informed criteria. We found that although perfectionists were more likely to have higher scores of prosocialness and empathy, non-perfectionists were more likely to produce Communal Designs. This suggested an apparent intention-behaviour mismatch. Engineering students may have intended to but then failed to produce Communal Designs; this could also be explained via our finding that perfectionists tend to have higher social desirability scores. The results indicate that complex decision-making in engineering design cannot be separated from the mindsets and personalities of engineers. Strategies to mitigate the negative impact of perfectionism are discussed, including both supported exposure to open-ended, contextualised design, and the use of critical reflection. A regression model predictive of Communal Design production was also developed and discussed using engineering undergraduates’ personality characteristics’ scores as predictors.

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Section: Issue: Positivism In the Face Of Empathy And Perfectionism I...mentioning

confidence: 95%

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering

Al Kakoun,

Boy,

Xavier

2023

Res Eng Design

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“…One of the reasons is that engineering education does not necessarily emphasize social awareness and responsibility. Most engineering education curricula are dominated by technical, mathematical and scientific knowledge and give very little attention to social or ethical knowledge [3]. Therefore, a well structured course in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) is necessary to improve the social and ethical awareness and attentiveness of engineering students.…”

Section: Introduction a Background Of The Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Triple Aim of a Semester-Long Course in Science, Technology, and Society

Toledo Tan,

Satriya,

Kee

et al. 2023

2023 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (TALE)

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This article discusses the importance of incorporating social and ethical knowledge into engineering education through a course in Science, Technology, and Society (STS). With the advent of the Fifth Industrial Revolution, it is crucial for engineers to be aware of societal needs and the Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations. However, engineering curricula often prioritize technical and scientific knowledge alone, neglecting social and ethical aspects. We present a description of STS as taught at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod, Philippines, during the academic years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. Here, we outlined government and course-level guidelines that guided the course and described the culminating learning evidence (CLE), the final deliverable of the course. Examples of CLE submissions were provided, followed by evaluations and reflections on lessons learned. We concluded by proposing enhancements to course design and implementation, aiming to improve social and ethical awareness among engineering students.

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“…+ Conflict of Identities represents conflicts between the multiple different roles of an individual and engineer [24], [48]. For students, having established an identity as engineers means navigating a dualism that frames themselves as extremely technical personnel and that supposes everything other than technical to be less valuable [48]. Furthermore, many engineering professionals function as both engineers and managers.…”

Section: Driver Of Unethical Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing a Theory of Ethical Behavior in Engineering

Nguyen¹,

Poleacovschi²,

Faust³

et al.

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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is an MA/Ph.D. student in Anthropology/Civil Engineering, who completed his Master of Science in Biochemistry at Iowa State University and his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at Hartwick College. His first master's thesis focused on the structural analysis of the schizophrenic gene DISC1 using transmission electron microscopy and hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry. For his second master's thesis, he focuses on identifying the individual and institutional factors that contribute to a "culture of disengagement" from the ethical dimension of engineering work among students in the engineering profession. His Ph.D. project is funded by the NSF and is concerned with promoting and improving engineering students' ethical behavior and sensitivity through on-campus student organizations. His academic interests include mental health, international development, human rights, and engineering ethics. Currently, his ambition is to work within an international organization such as UNESCO and to be an advocate for promoting science and technology as critical tools of sustainable development as well as to participate in the dialogue between scientists, policy-makers, and society. Luan enjoys traveling, reading, and watching documentaries.

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Bringing in "The Social" : Resisting and Assisting Social Engagement in Engineering Education

Cited by 9 publications

References 15 publications

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good: how perfectionism influences human-centred designing engagement and communal design production in civil engineering

The Triple Aim of a Semester-Long Course in Science, Technology, and Society

Conceptualizing a Theory of Ethical Behavior in Engineering

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