Appraising the Impact of Dialogical Pedagogy and Curriculum Co-Design: A Conversation Between the Humanities and Engineering

Brainerd Prince; SIDDHARTH SIDDHARTH; Rukmani Keshav

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Technical Session 26
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46594

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Brainerd Prince Plaksha University

visit author page

Brainerd Prince is the Associate Professor and the Director of the Center for Thinking, Language and Communication at Plaksha University. He teaches courses such as Reimagining Technology and Society, Ethics of Technological Innovation, Technology and the Anthropocene, and Art of Thinking along with communication courses for undergraduate engineering students and Research Design for PhD scholars. He completed his PhD on Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Philosophy from OCMS, Oxford – Middlesex University, London. He was formerly a Research Tutor at OCMS, Oxford, and formerly a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, a Recognized Independent Centre of Oxford University. He is also the Founding Director of Samvada International Research Institute which offers consultancy services to institutions of research and higher education around the world on designing research tracks, research teaching and research projects. His first book The Integral Philosophy of Aurobindo: Hermeneutics and the Study of Religion was published by Routledge, Oxon in 2017. For more information, please visit: https://plaksha.edu.in/faculty-details/dr-brainerd-prince

visit author page

biography

SIDDHARTH SIDDHARTH Plaksha University

visit author page

Dr. Siddharth is an Assistant Professor and Lead, Human-Technology Interaction (HTI) Lab at Plaksha University. Before joining Plaksha, he worked as a Senior Human Factors researcher at the Human Factors Center of Excellence, Microsoft USA. Dr. Siddharth received his PhD in Electrical Engineering (Intelligent Systems, Robotics, and Control) from the University of California San Diego in 2020. For more information about him, please visit https://ssiddharth.in/about-me

visit author page

biography

Rukmani Keshav Plaksha University

visit author page

Rukmani is a Teaching Fellow and researcher at the Centre for Thinking, Language and Communication at Plaksha University, India. She's a passionate advocate for bridging the gap between engineering and the humanities. Rukmani designs and delivers innovative teaching methods (pedagogy) to equip 21st-century engineers with the skills they need to thrive in a complex world. Her unique blend of expertise stems from her B.Tech in Biotechnology from SRM University and a postgraduate diploma in Liberal Studies from Ashoka University, a prestigious institution known for its focus on the humanities. Leveraging her four years of work experience in curriculum development and student instruction, Rukmani's current research and work centers around creating integrated curriculum that weaves engineering principles with a strong foundation of humanities.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

The central problem addressed in this work-in-progress paper is the divide that is there between engineering studies and the humanities in the current engineering curriculum design and pedagogy. Although it has been accepted that the engineering curriculum needs to be complemented with courses in the humanities, in practice, however, the humanities courses are mostly offered as electives. They are taught by humanities faculty who have no background in engineering, and are completely isolated from the rest of the engineering curriculum, resonating with the idea of NOMA (Non-overlapping Magisteria) between the humanities and engineering, a view advocated by the palaeontologist, Stephen Gould with regard to science and religion. It has been argued that this separation of the humanities from engineering, has made it quite difficult for the engineering fraternity to meaningfully contribute to our twenty-first-century society and its needs. The engineering problems of our age have a strong component concerning human traits, values, and ideals. Thus, engineers need to be trained not only in the technological and experimental education concerning the engineering curriculum but also in social and human knowledge and practices. This would enable engineers to understand, empathize with, and respond to the needs of humanity and build solutions that would cater to sustainable and developmental goals of our planet. In the past, elective courses in the humanities have been offered as part of the engineering curriculum, however, even these attempts do not solve the problem as the humanities and engineering courses continue to be siloed and there is no conversation between the engineering and the humanities faculty. In order to have a synergy between the humanities and engineering, there is a need for joint curriculum design and adopting collective pedagogical approaches.

This work-in-progress paper showcases a pedagogical innovation that was employed in a course for first-year engineering students. It introduces a new transdisciplinary course which has been co-designed by faculty belonging to the humanities and technology domains respectively and is also being co-taught using a dialogical teaching model in which a live conversation between both the faculty becomes the medium of course delivery. This paper demonstrates how this change in pedagogy has brought about a change in the engineering students’ perception of the course as well as has exponentially increased their participation in the course. We also show how the use of statistical tools and data from the technology domain to put forward arguments in lectures can go hand-in-hand with the philosophical and theoretical structures provided by the humanities. We establish that the traditional curriculum and pedagogy used by the faculty to teach humanities students will be ineffective in training the engineering students in humanities courses. A reimagination of both curriculum and pedagogy in collaboration with engineering fraternity is necessary if engineering students are to be effectively and meaningfully taught courses in the humanities.

Citation
Format

Prince, B., & SIDDHARTH, S., & Keshav, R. (2024, June), Appraising the Impact of Dialogical Pedagogy and Curriculum Co-Design: A Conversation Between the Humanities and Engineering Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46594

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The central problem addressed in this work-in-progress paper is the divide that is there between engineering studies and the humanities in the current engineering curriculum design and pedagogy. Although it has been accepted that the engineering curriculum needs to be complemented with courses in the humanities, in practice, however, the humanities courses are mostly offered as electives. They are taught by humanities faculty who have no background in engineering, and are completely isolated from the rest of the engineering curriculum, resonating with the idea of NOMA (Non-overlapping Magisteria) between the humanities and engineering, a view advocated by the palaeontologist, Stephen Gould with regard to science and religion. It has been argued that this separation of the humanities from engineering, has made it quite difficult for the engineering fraternity to meaningfully contribute to our twenty-first-century society and its needs. The engineering problems of our age have a strong component concerning human traits, values, and ideals. Thus, engineers need to be trained not only in the technological and experimental education concerning the engineering curriculum but also in social and human knowledge and practices. This would enable engineers to understand, empathize with, and respond to the needs of humanity and build solutions that would cater to sustainable and developmental goals of our planet. In the past, elective courses in the humanities have been offered as part of the engineering curriculum, however, even these attempts do not solve the problem as the humanities and engineering courses continue to be siloed and there is no conversation between the engineering and the humanities faculty. In order to have a synergy between the humanities and engineering, there is a need for joint curriculum design and adopting collective pedagogical approaches. 

This work-in-progress paper showcases a pedagogical innovation that was employed in a course for first-year engineering students. It introduces a new transdisciplinary course which has been co-designed by faculty belonging to the humanities and technology domains respectively and is also being co-taught using a dialogical teaching model in which a live conversation between both the faculty becomes the medium of course delivery. This paper demonstrates how this change in pedagogy has brought about a change in the engineering students’ perception of the course as well as has exponentially increased their participation in the course. We also show how the use of statistical tools and data from the technology domain to put forward arguments in lectures can go hand-in-hand with the philosophical and theoretical structures provided by the humanities. We establish that the traditional curriculum and pedagogy used by the faculty to teach humanities students will be ineffective in training the engineering students in humanities courses. A reimagination of both curriculum and pedagogy in collaboration with engineering fraternity is necessary if engineering students are to be effectively and meaningfully taught courses in the humanities.
AU  - Brainerd Prince
AU  - SIDDHARTH SIDDHARTH
AU  - Rukmani Keshav
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Appraising the Impact of Dialogical Pedagogy and Curriculum Co-Design: A Conversation Between the Humanities and Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/46594
ER  -