Meeting the Challenges of Engineering Ethics Education

Workshop ETHICS AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION

TU/Eindhoven, the Netherlands, from Thu Dec 12 2019 9:00 to Fri Dec 13 13:00.

The Ethics Working group of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) is organizing a dedicated workshop on Ethics and Engineering Education.

Teachers in engineering faculty face several challenges in teaching ethics. This workshop focusses on mutual support for solving these challenges. The workshop will be clustered around 4 relevant themes. Participants are invited to bring in extra own issues and will work on their challenges to take actual improvements ‘back home’.

Topics (We are open for input from participants):

• Educational methods: Learning activities, learning materials and other educational elements have a large impact on students’ motivation, basic needs, engagement and deep learning. See example: 2MIN video impression.

>>> We exchange educational methods and discuss adaptation to your context.

1. Assessment of students and evaluation of quality of ethics courses: Increasing the quality of student assessment and determining the effect of ethics courses can be tough challenge. See example1 and example2.

>>>   Different ways of assessing students in ethics courses and evaluating quality (effectiveness, learning goals …) of ethics courses will be shared and possible applications in your context will be discussed.

• Framing “Engineering ethics”: Framing engineering ethics is a must! You might feel comfortable with a definition like this: Engineering ethics is the study of related questions about the moral ideals, character, policies and relationships of people and corporations involved in technological activity (Martin and Schinzinger, 1996).

>>> We strengthen our reflection on and understanding of what engineering ethics is for our current time frame and in your context.

1. Evidence based redesign: Teaching methods appear to be often driven by custom-and-practice (‘I teach the way I have seen others teach this material‘) or by naive experimentation (‘I have an idea to try out‘). Yet, there is now growing evidence about what methods and approaches are effective in increasing student learning.

>>>   We come up with practical ideas how teaching of engineering ethics can be informed in your context by the evidence available on how people learn to think, feel and act ethically.

Practical:

Date: Thursday December 12^th 9:00 to Friday December 13^th 13:00.

Venue: TU Eindhoven, the Netherlands. More info will follow for participants.

Subscribe and questions: Send email to Gunter Bombaerts, g.bombaerts@tue.nl before Sunday Dec 1. Participation is free.

Proposals for other topics: can be submitted until Friday November 15^th.

Looking forward meeting you!

The SEFI Ethics working Group:

Roland Tormey (EPFL), Mamfred Hampe (TU Darmstadt), Diana Adela Martin (TU Dublin); Thomas Staley (Virginia Tech), Janna van Grunsven and Pieter de Vries (TU Delft), Ester Giménez Carbó (Universitat Politècnica de València), Gunter Bombaerts (TU Eindhoven).