Engineering education and the concept of ’Bildung’ Singapore June 8, 2009 khalid@kth.se Royal Institute of Technology, KTH Stockholm, Sweden

Objective of the discussion To figure out the bases of knowledge in interpersonal communication, ethics, professional responsibility and suggest ways of teaching and assessing them

The context CDIO has successfully been implemented in one study programs at KTH (starting 2000) CDIO will starting in fall 2009 be introduced in the fifteen remaining engineering programs. Focus on six abilities: communication, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, cooperation with society, internalization and engineering “Bildung”

Where in the CDIO? 2.5 PROFESSIONAL SKILLS AND ATTITUDES Professional Ethics, Integrity, Responsibility and Accountability 3.0 INTERPERSONAL SKILLS: TEAMWORK AND COMMUNICATION 4.1 EXTERNAL AND SOCIETAL CONTEXT Roles and Responsibility of Engineers The Impact of Engineering on Society Society’s Regulation of Engineering The Historical and Cultural Context Contemporary Issues and Values Developing a Global Perspective

Some questions to discuss 1/3 Identify a situation you (or of somebody you know of) have experienced where your understanding showed to be not as expected. Tell your neighbor the story! Try to identify what ‘knowledge’ influences your understanding of the situation. Think of a situation you really have criticized. What kind of knowledge triggered your criticism. NB that criticism may be positive or negative.

Some questions to discuss 2/3 Identify a situation where your understanding of ethnic/culture encounter showed to be other than what you expected. Tell your neighbor! What went wrong? We usually believe in what we have experienced and seen. How can we be sure our interpretation of the experience is accurate? Galileo. ”The sun gets up and sets”

Some questions to discuss 3/3 What differences can you see between: a. Having knowledge, methods and techniques, in Mathematics, physics, technology and b. Being involved, responsible and ethical? - In what ways? - How should b- abilities be taught and assessed?

Theoretical approaches Deductive Inductive Abductive Anlogical Example x Example y