Fostering Empathy in an Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Course

Abstract

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...

Understanding ethical decision‐making in design

“…All students demonstrated some ethical sensitivity, yet active discussion and reflection pushed some teams beyond ethical sensitivity into engaging issues of autonomy and implementing user feedback in their designs. As these students were less likely to question the ethicality of their decisions, this finding reinforces the importance of reflection in developing students' ethical reasoning (e.g., Turns et al, ; Walther et al, ). This theme also highlights the unique role of user interaction in stimulating students' ethical reflection.…”

“…We also examine what conditions or activities prompt students' reflection on their ethical decision‐making as ethical reflection supports the development of ethical reasoning skills (Beever & Brightman, ; Turns, Sattler, Yasuhara, Borgford‐Parnell, & Atman, ; Walther, Sochacka, & Kellam, ). When engineers make design decisions, they often engage in an intuitive ethical decision‐making process, drawing on their own moral values as well as the ethical expectations and standards of the engineering profession or program.…”

“…For example, moral sensitivity, or “awareness of how our actions affect other people” (Tuana, , p. 158), is necessary for developing ethical sensitivity. Ethical sensitivity combines one's moral awareness with an understanding of “the regulations, codes and norms of one's profession, and recognising when they apply” (Bebeau, , p. 283) and is, therefore, fundamental for developing ethical reasoning (Bebeau, ; Tuana, ; Walther et al, ). As Tuana () argues, “If our students cannot determine whether or not a situation involves an ethical issue or weigh the moral intensity of the issue, they will not be able to react responsibly” (p. 369).…”

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

“…More specifically, we envisage pedagogical interventions that experientially connect students’ development of empathic capacities and communication skills to active and reflective processes of moral and identity development. For example, in our own, on‐going work (Miller, Walther, & Kellam, ; Walther et al, ; Walther et al, ), we are using the model to develop an integrated series of empathy modules in a compulsory engineering and society course in a mechanical engineering program. The sequence of four modules is intertwined with critical readings that explore the socio‐technical complexities of engineering work and semester‐long team projects that focus on socio‐technical systems understandings and analysis in the local setting.…”

“…Explicitly identifying these five distinct facets of the skill dimension provides specific avenues for pedagogically addressing their development in engineering classrooms (see our ongoing work on empathy modules in Miller, Walther, & Kellam, ; Walther, Miller, & Kellam, ; Walther, Miller, & Sochacka, ), thus overcoming the problematic perception of empathy as an intractable and unteachable trait. The notion of mode switching also offers a conceptual and practical basis to address the challenges around educating for empathy alongside a technical training that are perceived in the engineering literature (Fila & Hess, ; Strobel et al, ).…”