Conference Session

Liberal Education and Leadership

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Val Hawks, Brigham Young University; John Harb, Brigham Young University; Alan Parkinson, Brigham Young University; Spencer Magleby, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

her technical skills, fired for poor peopleskills, and promoted for leadership and management skills.”7 The contemporary environmentrequires engineers to understand business processes, be able to contribute to cross-functionalteams and have “soft” skills in order to relate to peers, superiors and subordinates both in theoffice and across the globe. One engineering VP was quoted as saying, “We look for people whocan lead a team, someone who can get a small team-four to six people-motivated and a personwho can quickly learn which people are best at doing what. It’s hard enough to find a goodengineer; one who can lead a team and speak well in front of customers is really hard.” 8Engineering graduates themselves have noticed that they are not

Conference Session

Critical Thinking and Creative Arts

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Beth Todd, University of Alabama; Garry Warren, University of Alabama; Susan Burkett, University of Alabama; David Cordes, University of Alabama; Marcus Brown, University of Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

useful methods forteaching ethics, societal impact, and contemporary issues throughout the curriculum 8. A reviewdescribing creative methods for teaching and learning these skills are given by Shuman et al 9.Student focused e-learning courses 10 as well as ePortfolio approaches 11 have been useful forplacing responsibility of the student on communicating knowledge of the ABET outcomes thatare difficult to assess.Still others have attempted to address contemporary issues and other ABET outcomes bycreating soft skill modules that can be included in any course.12,13 When lumped with ethical andsocietal impact modules, assessment of the contemporary issue module showed that studentconfidence when dealing with these topics went from an average pre

Conference Session

Liberal Education and Leadership

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Richard House, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Anneliese Watt, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

own teachingof communication to the intrinsic motivation of personal or departmental conviction. Manywould likely agree with a respondent who reported teaching communication “because it’s theright thing to do.” The stated reasons for this imperative vary, with some respondents citingcompetitive advantage for graduating job-seekers, while others report that they want toencourage reflection or critical thinking. One view is compatible with a distinction between“soft skills” and core engineering competencies; the other implies what one respondent termed a“symbiotic relationship” in which engineering and its communication practices are inextricablefrom one another.The account changes appreciably, though, when respondents describe motivations