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Technological literacy: Subject or Pedagogy. Implications for liberal education

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Technological and Engineering Literacy - Philosophy of Engineering Division Technical Session 3

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41437

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41437

Download Count

210

Paper Authors

biography

John Heywood Trinity College Dublin

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John Heywood completed 60 years of membership with ASEE in June. His first paper to ERM was in 1973. He has some 190 authored and co-authored publications including 6 books on aspects of engineering education. His "Engineering Education. Research and Development in Curriculum and Instruction" received the best research publication award from the Division for the Professions of the American Educational research Association" . His most recent book Designing Engineering and Technology Curricula. Embedding Educational Philosophy was published by Morgan and Claypool as an e book this year.
He is a Professor Emeritus of Trinity College Dublin (The University of Dublin) where he was for twenty years Director of Teacher Education. Prior to that he was a member of the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Industrial Studies at the University of Liverpool. He directed the first attempt at a multi-dimensional analysis of the jobs done by engineers published in 1978 as "Analysing Jobs". His particular interests in engineering are in radio astronomy and space research and he participated in one of the radio observation programmes of Sputnik I. He is a Fellow of ASEE and a Life Fellow of IEEE.

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biography

Alan Cheville Bucknell University

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Alan Cheville studied optoelectronics and ultrafast optics at Rice University before joining Oklahoma State University working on terahertz frequencies and engineering education. While at Oklahoma State he developed courses in photonics and engineering design. After serving for two and a half years as a program director in engineering education at the National Science Foundation, he became chair of the ECE Department at Bucknell University. He is currently interested in engineering design education, engineering education policy, and the philosophy of engineering education.

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Abstract

For several years TELPhE has debated in discussion and through papers the meaning of technological and engineering literacy. There is some agreement, that because the variety of problems posed by technology require transdisciplinary knowledge, technological literacy is not a discipline per se, that is, a specific subject of the curriculum. There is, however, also some agreement that it acts as an umbrella for areas of knowledge that together may comprise a full degree programme. There is also an argument, followed here, that such a programme would meet the requirements of liberal education as proposed by such authorities as John Henry Newman, a matter that has been examined previously In this way it would better meet the needs of the ‘personal’ which current business models of the purposes of education don’t. But, such comments and argument have, with one or two exceptions, been general rather than specific. One such generalisation demonstrated the relevance of A. N. Whitehead’s rhythmic theory of learning, in particular its stage of romance, to the design of the curriculum .The purpose of this text is to extend the discussion in previous studies to a more detailed specification of the initial stage of induction for a curriculum in technological literacy within a specified framework of the aims of education. A framework for a programme in technological literacy is proposed which suggests that futurist derivations of the aims of higher education will require the development of alternative structures of higher education, all which will depend on a high level skill in independent learning, the premier objective of liberal education, for which all students should be prepared.

Heywood, J., & Cheville, A. (2022, August), Technological literacy: Subject or Pedagogy. Implications for liberal education Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41437

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