The role of role-play in student awareness of the social dimension of the engineering profession

Abstract

The article aims to expand upon traditional case based instruction through role-play and to explore the effectiveness of the approach in raising students' awareness of the social dimension of the engineering profession. For this purpose, we added a contextual description to the case study Cutting Roadside Trees driven by a macroethical outlook. Our contribution draws on an exercise based on the contextualised case study in which 80 students at Technological University Dublin participated. The results gathered show that role-playing contributed to complex student responses to the scenario and an awareness of the social factors that are part of engineering practice and which can constrain or enable decision-making. We suggest that exposing students to the perspectives of the different stakeholders that are involved in engineering professional practice can contribute to their understanding of the social context of engineering practice.

Using case studies in engineering ethics education: the case for immersive scenarios through stakeholder engagement and real life data

“…Case studies are described as scenarios meant to closely reflect features of a profession (Herreid, 1994). They are expected to contain authentic professional problems, thus raising students' awareness of the type of situations and problems they might encounter in the workplace (Merseth 1994;Davis 1997;Davis and Yadav 2014;Martin et al 2019). While there is no empirical study exploring the goals of engineering ethics education specifically in connection to the use of case studies, the literature mentions a broad and diverse set of goals.…”

“…There are considerable variations in the content and implementation of engineering ethics case studies, marked by a lack of consensus as to which approach is more effective and towards which goals (Davis 1999;Gorman, Mehalik, and Werhane 2000;Herkert, 2000;Haws 2001;Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins 2009;Jonassen and Hernandez-Serrano 2002;Herreid, C. F. 2007a, Herreid, C. F. 2007bAbaté 2011;Romkey 2015;Martin, Conlon, and Bowe 2019).…”

Teaching engineering ethics: a dissenting voice

“…And this is often reflected in the claims that are made about the benefits of the case study approach, such as encouraging 'independent thinking, thus moving away from the lecture and recitation format'. (Martin, Conlon, and Bowe 2019) In addition, I also want to distinguish between the approach I have in mind and two other possible forms of teaching that could credibly be called case-based teaching. One could base an entire module around a single case, having lectures on one aspect and having students read the academic literature on another aspect of the case etc.…”

“…But I can say that some authors endorse the approach -e.g. (Harris et al 1996) and (Abaté 2011) -while others agree that the approach is common even if their aim is not necessarily to endorse the approach (Martin, Conlon, and Bowe 2019) and (Thistlethwaite et al 2012). 2.…”

The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for Engineering Ethics

“…A particularly useful pedagogical method for considering this case is to assign students to the roles of engineers, managers, and regulators, as well as the flying public, airline personnel, and representatives of engineering societies (Herkert 1997 ). In addition to illuminating the perspectives and responsibilities of each stakeholder group, role-playing can also shed light on the “macroethical” issues raised by the case (Martin et al 2019 ) such as airline safety standards and the proper role for engineers and engineering societies in the regulation of the industry.…”