contribute to engineering education?” This is an important practical question to address. In order to have a better understanding of the related issues, we tried an experiment. During Fall 2013, with collaboration between our engineering college and a European Page 24.679.3university, a set of seminars with the title of “Critical Reflections on Engineering, Engineering Pedagogy and Philosophy” were conducted. Engineering faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students attended the seminars. In addition, faculty from Physics
“liberal” and the “vocational.” They will have been schooled in educational systems that areclassified by subjects and where the distinctions between them are emphasised and therefore,between liberal and professional (vocational) knowledge rather than the seamless pattern towhich they belong. For this reason students should be invited to explore different ways ofconceiving knowledge including their own, and how it may be re- structured in order that theymay use it in specialist study. Related to this is the need to understand how we learn and how wedevelop the reflective capacity that is indicative of higher order thinking. One of the majoradvantages of incorporating the fine arts into liberal education is that it forces on the learner
Minnesota Office of HigherEducation [3]. The third intention is to argue that reconciliation between the two literacies is more easilyaccomplished if new curriculum structures can be embraced. While it is understood that particular notions ofcurriculum structure are deeply embedded in a culture, it is argued that this embededness prevents a culturefrom reflecting on how it should respond to the explosion in knowledge that has occurred in the last century.This requires thinking outside the box about alternative curriculum structures.A model curriculum for a college engineering and technological literacy program is described. Its framework isderived from elements of an experimental program in technology education designed for the transition year
employ this technique to understand how things work.AcknowledgementSome aspects of this work were developed through support of the National Science Foundationunder award 0920164. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed inthis material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NationalScience
showcases will be used to promote bothtechnological literacy and the “TECH393: Technology in World Civilization” course. It is likelythat this effort will steer additional students into the course as well.Conclusions, Reflections, and the FutureThe study of past technologies utilizing recreated artifacts, collected objects, graphic images,pictures, videos, and display cases has enhanced the student's knowledge of technologicalliteracy. The relationship between people and technology is now better understood in terms of itssocial, cultural, political, and economic aspects. The problem solving ability of previousgenerations of humans along with their desire to invent and develop new tools, techniques, andprocesses are also more appreciated. The
no longer ignore these interdisciplinaryaspects of education. They are definitely not peripheral; they are central to the educationalneeds of many engineers…the Goals Report, in its adherence to orthodoxy, does not dealeffectively with these emerging domains that embody many of the dominant engineeringchallenges of the future.” Government representatives emphasized the social role of engineeringin policy: “To put it bluntly, I see little in the Goals Report that reflects the current and growingrequirements of the nation or of the world for engineering talent. I see little that relates suchsocial requirements back into the requirements of the educational system.”The definition of engineering that emerges from that meeting has a dialectic