Engineering Commons^™

Engineering Students Reflect On Work-Life Relevant Learning, Camilla Björn, Kristina Edström, Viggo Kann

Research Papers

As engineering education is a professional education, it should prepare students for working life. However, there are obvious limitations to the amount of content that is possible to cover and the authenticity of the learning environments. In this study, we investigate the students’ awareness and perception of these limitations by answering the following two research questions: What competencies do the students view as work-life relevant? How do students reflect on their opportunities to learn these competencies? The context of the study is the five-year Master of Science in Engineering and Computer Science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Throughout the …

Professionalising Science And Engineering Teachers In Guiding And Assessing Reflection, Elise Eshuis, Kariene Mittendorff, Heleen Daggenvoorde-Baarslag

Research Papers

The current knowledge society of the 21st century requires students, among other things, to have the ability to think reflectively. Various studies show however that educational programs and teachers, from engineering programs in particular, experience difficulties in integrating the development of students’ reflection skills in their curricula. This gave rise to a multi-year project on improving reflection in engineering educational programs. We worked with teacher teams of 6 programs to improve their curricula and teacher practices regarding reflection. Part of the project were training sessions for teachers focused on guiding and assessing reflection activities of their students.

This paper presents …

Validity Of Student Professional Practice Competency Claims, David Lowe, Anthony Kadi

Research Papers

The University of Sydney has introduced a program of engaging engineering students throughout their degree program in diverse forms of self-selected exposure to, and engagement with, professional practice. To gain recognition of completed activities students are required to submit “claims” that include identification of the core competencies that were developed and demonstrated during the activity, along with a detailed reflection on their learning. Given that the claims are highly individualised and often unsupervised, assessment is predominantly limited to evaluation of the reflections along with evidence of the activity. A key question in the program relates to the validity of the …

Campfire Talk Game, An Unsupervised Intervision Game For Students And Staff, Pleun Hermsen, Sjoerd Van Dommelen, Paula Hueso Espinosa

Workshops

Are you witnessing students facing concerns, difficulties, and problems throughout their educational journey? Perhaps you know PhDs, lecturers, or support staff who encounter challenges in their educational, research, or teaching paths. Openly addressing these issues can prove beneficial in all of these scenarios! While coaching is a potential solution, it can be time-consuming and demanding, right? Instead, let them have a Campfire Talk: a non-intrusive and socially safe serious game that requires no supervision. It provides a platform for discussing struggles that in practice are often difficult to address or overlooked but can deeply affect individual or group behavior. During …

Reflection On Your Personal Perspective Through Other Perspectives. A Step In Dealing With Wicked Problems, Pleun Hermsen, Sjoerd Van Dommelen, Paula Hueso Espinosa

Workshops

Don’t we all sometimes seek the perspective of someone unrelated to our work, to get unstuck, or when we seek creativity? Engineers, educators, and students put their trust into science, protocols, procedures and models. Rightfully so, from the perspective of the laws of engineering this makes sense. This also explains why when people deal with challenges, they often tackle them (consciously or unconsciously) with their preferred strategies (Hayashi 2018) (Mezirow 2000). However, these preferred strategies might offer a false sense of security because they oversimplify the complicated nature of the challenge. People might focus on a part of problem which …

The Power Of Perspective Dialogue: Unlocking Transformative Reflection In Engineering Education (Practice), Pleun Hermsen, Sjoerd Van Dommelen, Paula Hueso Espinosa, Maartje Van Den Bogaard

Practice Papers

Engineers need to be socially responsible, ethically aware and deliver positive contributions to the wicked problems2 of today's global challenges. In navigating these challenges, being able to reflect is a necessary prerequisite. But if we simply ask students reflective questions, they tend to give us mostly socially desirable answers. Our university initiated an institute-wide program focused on creating learning experiences and environments for transformative reflection instead of superficial reflection. In this paper we present design principles for transformative reflection based on a literature overview and the program's accumulated experience. The principles are I) Six domains for reflection on engineering issues, …

Reshaping The Bio Medical Curriculum To Include Socialisation And Subjectification, Renate Gerarda Klaassen, Linette R.H. Bossen, Costanza Milano, Hans Hellendoorn

Practice Papers

University students are asked to become all-round human beings, knowing how to be engaged in Engineering in the future, as well as wholly socialised and going through personal development steps. However, how and where are the students supposed to acquire these skills? Do we already have them in the Higher Education programmes and curricula? This article explores low threshold steps that can be taken to tweak the curriculum and implicit professionalisation of staff towards incorporating transversal skills and reflective activities that allow students to develop to their full potential.. One is a roadmap Workshop identifying guiding principles and touchpoint activities …