Philosophy, engineering education and the curriculum

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings

Volumn , Issue , 2008, Pages

  Heywood, John ^a,b  

^a TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN   (Ireland)

^b Piccadilly

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CURRICULA; EDUCATION; PERSONNEL TRAINING; PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS; TEACHING;

ENGINEERING EDUCATORS; ENGINEERING SOCIETIES; EXPOSED TO; HIGHER EDUCATION; PHILOSOPHY OF ENGINEERINGS; WILLIAMS;

ENGINEERING EDUCATION;

EID: 85029041217     PISSN: None     EISSN: 21535965     Source Type: Conference Proceeding    
DOI: None     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (73)

1. Koen, B. V. (2003) Discussion of the Method. Conducting the Engineer's Approach to Problem Solving. Oxford University Press, New York
2. Goldman, S. L. (2004). Why we need a philosophy of engineering. Work in progress. Interdisciplinary Science Review 23, (2), 163-176
3. Engineering Meets Philosophy (2007) Abstracts of Workshop on Philosophy and Engineering. Delft University of Technology. Netherlands.
4. See for example Bright, L (1958). Whitehead's Philosophy of Physics. Newman Philosophy of Science Series. Sheed and Ward, London for a resumé.
5. For a popular work see Whitehead, A. N (1925). Science and the Modern World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
6. see for example Hansen, R and M. Froelich (1994) Defining technology and technological education. A crisis or a cause for celebration. International Journal of Technology and Design Education. 4, 179-207 and other articles in the same Journal.
7. In the United States the term technology when used of degrees implies what in other parts of the world imply technician when applied to an activity. Technological in the UK when applied to degree level study would in every day talk apply as much to engineering degrees as to other programmes set up to apply science. See also note 5.
8. Personal notes made at a meeting of representatives of science education on the one hand and technological education on the other by the Assessment of Performance Unit of HM Inspectorate, Department of Education and Science.
9. Edels, H (1968). Technology in the sixth form. Trends in Education. No 10 Ministry of Education, London. By engineering was meant engineering science with a component in design
10. Heywood, J (2007). "Think...About how others think." Liberal Education and Engineering. Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference . T3c-20 to 24 (IEEE, New York)
11. National Research Council (1996). National Science Education Standards. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
12. Matthews, M. R. (2000) Time for Science Education. How Teaching the History and Philosophy of Pendulum Motion Can Contribute to Science Literacy. Kluwer, New York.
13. Grimson, W (2007). The philosophic nature of engineering - A characterisation of engineering using the language and activities of philosophy. Proceedings Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education Paper 1611.
14. For a more detailed discussion see Heywood, J (2005) Engineering Education: Research and development in Curriculum and Instruction. Wiley/IEEE, New York. pp55-57.
15. Among the articles cited were Berg, C. A (1992) On teaching design: identifying the subject. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education, 20, (4), 235-240.
16. Thompson, G and C. R. McChesney (1999) The Royal Academy of Engineering summer school for new teachers of engineering design. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education, 27, (2), 127-172.
17. Wild, P. M and C. Bradley (1998) Employing the concurrent design philosophy in developing an engineering design science programme. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education, 26, (1), 51-64.
18. Morant, M. J (1993) Electronics as an academic subject. International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, 110-123.
19. Sinclair, G and W. Tilston (1979). Improved goals for engineering education. Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference, 252-258.
20. See Wild and Bradley ref 13.
21. Joint Matriculation Board (1972). Notes for the Guidance on Engineering Science at the Advanced Level of the General Certificate of Education. Joint Matriculation Board, Manchester
22. For example see Bruce, D and A. Bruce (eds) Engineering Genesis. Ethics of Genetic Engineering in Non Human Species. Earthscan, London
23. Sometimes described by J. H. Newman as enlargement of mind. For a commentary on his views see Culler, A. D (1955) The Imperial Intellect. A Study of Cardinal Newman's Educational Ideal. Yale University Press.
24. See P 190 in particular. Culler cites Newman's oft quoted discussion on the enlargement of the mind thus "which is the power of viewing things at once as a whole, of referring them severally to their true place in the universal system of understanding their respective values and determining their mutual dependence...Possessed of this real illumination, the mind never views any part of the extended subject-matter of Knowledge without recollecting that it is but a part, or without the associations which spring from this recollection. It makes everything some sort of lead to everything else; it would communicate the image of the whole to every separate portion, till that whole becomes in imagination like a spirit, every where pervading and penetrating its component parts, and giving them meaning...To have even a portion of this illuminative reason and true philosophy is the highest state to which nature can aspire, in the way of intellect..."
25. loc. cit ref 12
26. loc. cit ref 11
27. Vardy, P (1999) The Puzzle of Ethics. Fount. Harper Collins, London
28. A point that is made very clear by Shulman in his essay on psychology and mathematics education in E.C. Begle (ed) (1970) Mathematics Education. National Society for the study of Education. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
29. Smith, K. A. (2003). The Academic Bookshelf: Educational Philosophy. Journal of Engineering Education July.
30. Lowe, V (1990) Alfred North Whitehead. The Man and His Work. Volume II. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland. Commenting on Whitehead's The Aims of Education p 48.
31. Newman, J. H. (1852) The Idea of a University. Longmans Green
32. Fitzgibbons, R. E. (1981) Making Educational Decisions. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. See Ch 1.qote is on p 6.
33. Hansen, J. G. R and C. A. Fisher (1986). Curricular emphasis in mechanics: A national update. Engineering Education (April) 664-669.
34. See ref. 12 for a summary Ch 7. P 181 ff.
35. loc.cit ref 13. p 181 ff
36. Heywood, J (2000). Assessment in Higher Education. Student Learning, Teaching, Programmes and Institutions. Jessica Kingsley, London
37. Yokomoto, C. F and W. D. Bostwick (1999) Modeling the process of writing measurable outcomes for Ec 2000. Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference 2, 11b1, 18 to 22.
38. See also Tredennick, N (2007). Ten Years of Objectives and Outcomes: Time for Change. The Interface (IEEE). No3 pp1-2.
39. loc.cit ref 29.
40. Bruner, J (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
41. Lonergan, B (1971). Insight. Darton, Longman and Todd, London
42. ibid
43. loc.cit ref 32.
44. nd edition, Darton, Longman and Todd, London)
45. with B. V. Koen's Discussion of the Method. Conducting the Engineer's Approach to Problem Solving (Oxford UP-2003) which he believes to be universal i.e the method
46. Note that constructivism as described here is not mentioned in either the Cambridge Dictionary or the Oxford Companion to Philosophy under the heading of this name. But it is in the Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy. "Theory that knowledge is not something we acquire but something we produce;that the objects in an area of inquiry are not there to be discovered but are invented or constructed.
47. Bucciarelli, Louis, L (2003) Engineering Philosophy. Delft University Press, Delft, Netherlands.
48. This account of Plato is greatly simplified. See Copleston, F (1946). A History of Philosophy. Burnes Oates & Washbourne, London. Paperback edition 1993, Doubleday, New York.
49. See also Scott-Kakures, D et al (eds) (1993). History of Philosophy. Harper Collins, New York.
50. On the particular issue ' Copleston writes: "if a man is asked what justice is, and he points to imperfect embodiements of justice, particular instances which fall short of the universal ideal e.g. the action of a particular man, a particular constitution or set of laws, having no inkling that there exists a principle of absolute justice, a norm and standard, than that mans mind is a state of opinion [...] He sees the images or copies and mistakes them for originals. But if a man has an apprehension of justice itself, if he can rise above the images to the form, to the idea, to the universal, whereby all particular instances must be judged, then his state of mind is a state of knowledge.[..] Moreover, it is possible to progress from one state of mind to the other, to be "converted" as it were, and when man comes to realise that what he formerly took to be originals are in reality images or copies i.e. imperfect embodiments of the ideal...when he comes to apprehend in some way the original itself...then he has been converted to knowledge."
51. Hirst, P (1975). Knowledge and the Curriculum. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
52. Phenix, P. H. (1964) Realms of Meaning. McGraw Hill, New York.
53. This note is included to give some idea of the flavour of the debate and to indicate the importance attached to concepts. In order to distinguish between the objects of knowledge Phenix classifies propositions by two dimensions. These are quantity (singular, general comprehensive) and quality (fact, form, norm). Apart from criticising the terms within the quality dimension Hirst asks why these two features should have been selected when there are other possibilities. For example propositions may be classified by tense (past, present, future). "Manifestly one can classify propositions in a great variety of ways but if we are to classify them as true propositions and nothing else, we must do this by virtue of their logically necessary features and not by any other characteristics that they may happen to have." This is how we happen to classify concepts. We become confused about concepts if we take into account properties that do not define them. Therefore, argues Hirst the criteria that distinguish the objects of knowledge are (1) concepts appropriately related in a logical structure so that propositions can be formed and (2) criteria for judging propositions to be true. This point illustrates the importance of concepts in learning and validates all the work that is being done in assessment in engineering to ensure that concepts are understood. It is on this basis that Hirst proposes his own classification of the forms of knowledge
54. Wringe, C (1988). Undertsanding Educational Aims. Unwin Hyman, London
55. loc.cit ref 30
56. See for example Furst, E. J. (1994) Bloom's taxonomy: philosophical and educational issues. In Anderson, L. W. and L.A. Sosniak (eds). Bloom's Taxonomy. A Forty Year Retrospective. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
57. Major criticisms of the Taxonomy were made by P. L. Dressel (1971). Values, Cognitive and Affective. Journal of Higher Education 42, (5) 400,
58. and E. W. Eisner (1979). The Educational Imagination. On the Design and Evaluation of School Programmes. Macmillan, New York. For a review focused on engineering education see ch's 1 and 2 of ref 29.
59. Furst, E. J (1958). The Construction of Evaluation Instruments. David McKay, New York.
60. That argument related to objectives and outcomes. For example problem Solving would be a domain as would creativity. Heywood, J (1989). Problems in the evaluation of focussing objectives and their implications for the design of systems models of the curriculum with special reference to comprehensive examinations. Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference pp 235-241
61. Williams. R (2003). Retooling. A Historian confronts Technological Change. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
62. Whitehead, A.N (1932) The Aims of Education and Other Essays. 1950 edition. Benn London. Ch 1. Given in 1916. P12
63. loc.cit ref 25 p 48.
64. loc.cit ref 48 p 24
65. ibid p 27
66. ibid
67. ibid p30
68. See for example, Matthews, G. B (1980). Philosophy and the Young Child. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
69. Crynes, B. L and D. A. Crynes (1997). They already do it: common practices in primary education that engineering education should use. Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference 3, 12-19.
70. For a description of the Transition year and details of the development of these courses See Heywood, J and M. Murray (2005). Curriculum-led Staff development. Towards Curriculum and Instructional Leadership in Ireland. Bulletins of the European Forum on Educational Administration No 4 Pages 7 to 97.
71. Heywood, J (1991) Theory and practice of technology education- implications for the senior cycle of secondary education. In Kussman, M and H. Steffen Current Topics of Technology Education in Europe. EGTB Report No 1. Pp 66-77. Europäische Gessellschaft für Technische Bildung EGTB, Dusseldorf.
72. On manufacturing technology with girls and boys see Owen, S and J. Heywood (1990) Transition Technology in Ireland. An Experimental Course in Manufacturing Technology. International Journal of Technology and Design Education 1, (1), 21-32.
73. And Kelly, D. T and J. Heywood (1996) Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference. 388-393