Preparing engineers for social responsibility

Zandvoort, Henk

doi:10.1080/03043790802024082

Cited by 55 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Arnim Wiek and colleagues (2011) are another important resource for the discussion of competencies. 16 More information about teaching of ethics for engineers in Europe and in Australia can be found in Zandvoort et al (2000b) of which ''Engineering ethics education in the USA: Content, pedagogy and curriculum'' (Herkert 2000) was a contribution, and in Zandvoort (2008b). For useful information about the teaching of ethical and professional issues within engineering programmes in the USA see also the work of Anne Colby and William Sullivan (2008) and Larry Shuman and colleagues (2005).…”

Section: Teaching For Social Responsibility: the Actual Teaching Effomentioning

confidence: 99%

Editors’ Overview Perspectives on Teaching Social Responsibility to Students in Science and Engineering

Zandvoort

Børsen

Deneke³

et al. 2013

Sci Eng Ethics

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Global society is facing formidable current and future problems that threaten the prospects for justice and peace, sustainability, and the well-being of humanity both now and in the future. Many of these problems are related to science and technology and to how they function in the world. If the social responsibility of scientists and engineers implies a duty to safeguard or promote a peaceful, just and sustainable world society, then science and engineering education should empower students to fulfil this responsibility. The contributions to this special issue present European examples of teaching social responsibility to students in science and engineering, and provide examples and discussion of how this teaching can be promoted, and of obstacles that are encountered. Speaking generally, education aimed at preparing future scientists and engineers for social responsibility is presently very limited and seemingly insufficient in view of the enormous ethical and social problems that are associated with current science and technology. Although many social, political and professional organisations have expressed the need for the provision of teaching for social responsibility, important and persistent barriers -013-9495-7 stand in the way of its sustained development. What is needed are both bottom-up teaching initiatives from individuals or groups of academic teachers, and top-down support to secure appropriate embedding in the university. Often the latter is lacking or inadequate. Educational policies at the national or international level, such as the Bologna agreements in Europe, can be an opportunity for introducing teaching for social responsibility. However, frequently no or only limited positive effect of such policies can be discerned. Existing accreditation and evaluation mechanisms do not guarantee appropriate attention to teaching for social responsibility, because, in their current form, they provide no guarantee that the curricula pay sufficient attention to teaching goals that are desirable for society as a whole.Sci Eng Ethics (2013) 19:1413-1438 DOI 10.1007/s11948

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Section: Teaching For Social Responsibility: the Actual Teaching Effomentioning

confidence: 99%

Editors’ Overview Perspectives on Teaching Social Responsibility to Students in Science and Engineering

Zandvoort

Børsen

Deneke³

et al. 2013

Sci Eng Ethics

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show abstract

“…To be more effective, these practices should be linked to appropriate theoretical and empirical inputs, and the educational goals should be explicit (Bowden and Smythe 2008;Colby and Sullivan 2008;Davis 2006;Rathje et al 2008;Segalas 2009;Segalas et al 2010;Zandvoort 2008;Zandvoort et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for Teaching Professional Ethics to IT Engineering Degree Students and Evaluating the Result

et al. 2016

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This paper presents an experience in developing professional ethics by an approach that integrates knowledge, teaching methodologies and assessment coherently. It has been implemented for students in both the Software Engineering and Computer Engineering degree programs of the Technical University of Madrid, in which professional ethics is studied as a part of a required course. Our contribution of this paper is a model for formative assessment that clarifies the learning goals, enhances the results, simplifies the scoring and can be replicated in other contexts. A quasi-experimental study that involves many of the students of the required course has been developed. To test the effectiveness of the teaching process, the analysis of ethical dilemmas and the use of deontological codes have been integrated, and a scoring rubric has been designed. Currently, this model is also being used to develop skills related to social responsibility and sustainability for undergraduate and postgraduate students of diverse academic context.

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“…Vanzdoort discusses the micro levels of social responsibility such as ethical codes for engineers and macro levels of social responsibility such as societal decisions about technology. He states that knowledge of the social aspects of engineering is necessary because of the environment in which engineers work [1]. Research also suggests that there is a need for global competence in the engineering profession.…”

Section: Social Consciousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Freshmen engineering students at Louisiana Tech University take a series of three engineering problem solving courses as part of the Living with the Lab experience [1]. The third course culminates in an open-ended design project.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Consciousness in Engineering Students: An Analysis of Freshmen Design Project Abstracts

Rucks¹,

Orr²,

Hall³

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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This research paper explores the motivations behind freshmen engineering projects, particularly as they vary by gender composition of the team. All freshmen in the engineering program at Louisiana Tech University must take and pass Engineering Problem Solving III, an engineering design class, before moving on to sophomore engineering classes. Students are instructed to team up in groups of two to five to design and construct a "smart product" using the knowledge gained from their previous Engineering Problem Solving I and II classes. At the end of the quarter, each team must submit a project abstract before presenting their work at the Freshmen Design Expo. This qualitative study looks at these abstracts in an attempt to find a pattern between the gender composition of the group and the motivation behind the product. Eighty-one project abstracts are analyzed, representing 227 students. Several distinct themes emerged from the analysis of the project abstracts. The most common themes were Annoying and Frustrating, Efficiency and Time Saving, Safety, Elderly and Disabled, Health and Sanitation, Forgetfulness, and Children. Analysis of how these themes map to gender composition of design teams is ongoing. These themes will help to understand how students view the impact that they can have as future engineers. Redesigning curricula and analyzing recruitment techniques to encompass particular themes may help to attract and retain more students in engineering. In this study, groups that had an equal number of males and females were more likely to design a socially conscious project than groups that were mostly male or mostly female. IntroductionFreshmen engineering students at Louisiana Tech University take a series of three engineering problem solving courses as part of the Living with the Lab experience [1]. The third course culminates in an open-ended design project. Students spend about five weeks selecting, designing, and building a "smart" product. Throughout the first year, these students have implemented a variety of sensors and actuators using an Arduino microcontroller. Their smart product must sense something about its environment and respond or report based on this input. Students self-select their teams of two to five members (honors sections typically use teams of two). They are guided through brainstorming, production of multiple prototypes, and discussions with instructors and fellow classmates. Their final product is presented to a panel of judges at the Freshmen Design Expo. Before the Expo, student teams are required to submit a brief project description that is distributed to judges and guests. These descriptions are analyzed in this study to identify underlying motivations.

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Preparing engineers for social responsibility

Cited by 55 publications

References 9 publications

Editors’ Overview Perspectives on Teaching Social Responsibility to Students in Science and Engineering

Editors’ Overview Perspectives on Teaching Social Responsibility to Students in Science and Engineering

Strategies for Teaching Professional Ethics to IT Engineering Degree Students and Evaluating the Result

Social Consciousness in Engineering Students: An Analysis of Freshmen Design Project Abstracts

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