Educational philosopher and provocateur

According to Adams and Felder, educational philosopher and provocateur is one of "exciting new roles for enabling engineering education to dynamically respond to the evolving nature of the engineering profession".

I had never have engineering ethics or philosophical class before I enrolled in the ENE department. To be honest, I was reluctunt to have philosophical class at first because I thought it was irrelevent to engineering. But my mind has changed now. I have new ideas about engineering because of the philosophy class. And I think other engineering students should have philosophy classes, too.

Responsibility and ethical behavior

I do not think responsibility and ethical behavior are the same thing. In my opinion, responsibility is a commitment and willingness to accept consequences. Ethical behavior is linked with the word "moral".

For example, a boy damages a table which belongs to the public property and he has the willingness to accept the punishment. I can say that the boy is responsible, but he does not behave in a moral way.

Equipped for life

"Women who entered equipment studies faced extensive requirements, including three physics courses and two classes in household electrical equipment, plus one six-hour introduction to laboratory research methodology."
It is very surprising that they had classes that I had when I was undergraduate.

"As additional career training, journalism classes taught equipment students to write about technology for a general readership. "
It is cool. Many engineers do not even know how to write for a general readership.

"Equipment courses not only sought to teach students minor repair skills but also stressed strategies to avoid expensive major problems."
This sounds like a technical thing.

Reflection of Engineering Education Nov 5

According to "Goals": "the engineering student should be sufficiently exposed to the new facts and theories offered by the social sciences to help him understand the large social problems of his time."

First, I am unhappy with the word " him" and "his". "Her" should be added.

Second, I do not think engineering education introduces enough social sciences to engineering students, at least from my own experience.

Class Observation Reflection

Date: Oct 28, Wednesday, 7:30AM- 9:20AM
Class: ENG 195
Instructor: Dr. Senay Purzer

About the class topic

The topic was sustainability. This was the subject that I did not expect in the first-year engineering class. I thought the concept of sustainability was most valued by environmental engineers. And I took 2 undergraduate and 1 graduate curriculum ralated to sustainability. Compared to the courses that I took, ENG 195 provided the basic concepts and outlines of sustainability without digging deeper. Maybe it is enough for freshmen. However, from my personal perspective, I hope those future engineers know more about sustainability and care about the earth-our only home.

Teamwork

Almost half of the class time was used as teamwork time. And I noticed that some mixed-gender group had some off-task conversation. I was wondering whether ENG 195 offered lecture about communication skill during group decision making. It would be great if the lecture was offered.

BTW: I learned a new word "zen" in the class. :)

Bias

I did not feel very comfortable when I read the article " Engineering Knowledge: The Construction of Knowledge in Artificial Intelligence", because the paper is based on the observation of the author herself. Also I do not think some CS engineers/scientists can represent the engineering entity.

Actually this was not the first time I felt uncomfortable when I was reading social&educational papers. Most of the time, I held a skeptical attitude, esp when it comes to qualititive research.

BTW: Human beings are complicated, not like materials. For example, many sci/engr experiments are repeatable in different labs, and the results can be considered universal acceptable. But it is not the case in the human related field. So I think a boundary should be clearly defined when the researchers in the human related field write papers.

Engineering Design is more than problem solving

Here are my two cents:

Problem solving: The problem is out there, which means you have a target to hit. Once you come out with a solution, the process of problem-solving is over.

Engineering design: The first step of engineering design is to identify the problem, which means sometimes you do not even where to shoot. And there is always a new problem emerging. Then the engineers have got to find a new solution. The problem and the solution come out by turns.

The Psycology of Identification

We dicussed two functions of boundary yesterday, and I am interested in the function of identification. I was thinking: why people want to identify themselves?

I searched the internet and found a definition of identification: A process by which an individual unconsciously endeavors to pattern himself after another. This process is also important in the development of the personality, particularly the superego or conscience, which is modeled largely on the behavior of adult significant others.
http://medical.webends.com/kw/Identification%20(Psychology)

Also, I found some psycological explanations for identification in Herbert Alexander Simon's book, Administrative behavior: a study of decision-making processes in administrative organizaion, 4th edition:
1. "Personal interest in organization success"
For example, I am a member of a research program. My benefit ( Am I using the right word?) is related to the program. The relationship between the program and me is win-win or lose-lose. So, I want the program to be successful. And I agree with Simon in this point.

2. "Transfer of Private-Management psycology"
For example, I am an ENE graduate student now. When I am talking to other people who is not in ENE, I use the term "my department" or "our" or "we". But I do not think this is an explanation. This is just a description of behavior.

I am thinking: maybe the reason of identification is communication, because human beings are social animals. For example,a man who labels himself as an egineer can easily find another egnieer to talk about engineering stuff. Otherwise, why doesn't he label himself something else?

Non-engineering constraints

"Most engineering education programs treat problems as
engineering-only problems. However, workplace problem constraints,
like standards, usually had little to do with engineering."(Jonassen, 2007)

Engineering work should not be the whole world to a good engineer. Technology is just a piece of an engineering project. There are many other influencing factors, such as political policies, environmental issues, ethic issues, time, budget, culture, and so on. I am thinking that maybe some classes about politics, environment, social ethics should be added in the list of engineering curriculum.

Philosophy Essay

I think I have learned a lot from writing this "What is Education" essay. Honestly, I was very reluctant to write this essay. Because I really had no idea about education at that time. So I had to force myself to think and believe me, it was painful. However after the completion of the essay, I begin to have some idea about education. And reviews from peers and teacher did help me a lot. I sensed the power of collaborative more strongly than before.

Questions about Women's ways of knowing

Compared to Bloom's taxonomy, women's perspectives seem pretty much the same as it, except for the silence part. And I really doubt if the "silence" part is necessary. Let's see what the sample is. "These were women of little education, frequently victims of abuse past and/or present, living in difficult apparently dead-end circumstances." This group of women do not reprsent all the women.

Also it seems that the "evaluation" part is missing from women's ways of knowing.That is strange. "Constructed knowledge" looks more like a high level of synthesis to me.

Anyway, I think women's ways of knowing is questionable.

His & Phi of ENE-Week 3

Noddings, chapter 5-7
I have difficulties in understanding those western philosophy stuffs, such as epistemology. Noddings assumed that the readers of this book have mastered some basic knowledge of philosophy of education, but apparently I am not one of them.
Talking about critical thinking in history, I am trying to link my own experience to it.
“History is written by winners.” I do not know who said the words, but I totally agree. Before I read a history book, I always want to know the author’s background and his/her life experience. In my opinion, nobody can address a real history. What I read is the history from the author’s perspective instead of the entire scene.

Noddings, chapter 1-4,The aim of education

As far as I know, some people think education is a kind of investment, just like the author says:”so many people think of education as an enterprise that has a specific aim-an ideal person or way of life as its outcome”. When I was in high school, the teachers told us that you would not need to study hard once you had got admitted to college. When I go to the top one university in my country, I found out that I still had to study hard. One day I realized that I had to keep learning all my life if I wanted to accomplish something. There is no end to education. I kind of agree with Deway’s concept of “education-growth”. In my opinion, education lead to the exploration of one’s potential, which is growth. In my personal experience, I think education makes me know who I am and what I am capable of. And education is not an end. Neither is growth. Death is a way of end. Destruction of the whole human being is a way of end.

His & Phi of ENE-Week 1

Group Behaviors

This was the first time that I attended a class with a lot of discussion. And I have to say that my English sucks. I wanted to speak out, and I’d got lots of words in my mind, but I just got tong-tied. I kind of hated myself at those moments.

Speaking of group behaviors, I think my strength is seeking information or opinions, because I am not afraid of losing face and I think it is a shame to pretend to know something that you don’t. And my weakest link is the language issue, obviously. I hope I can do better in giving information or opinions next time.

By the way, Noah, Julia, Beth and Sensen did a very good job in giving information or opinions, and Julia and Beth did an excellent job in encouraging teammates. I can learn a lot from them.

The Courage to Teach-Chapter III-The Hidden Wholeness-Paradox in Teaching and Learning-Parker J. Palmer

I have to say that I love this chapter. The concept of this chapter “wholeness and paradox” goes with my mind of philosophy. There is a classic picture of “taiji” which shows my opinion. It is a kind of traditional Chinese theory. You can see the paradox: half white and half black, but together they make a whole. Also, there is a small black dot in the white half and a small white dot in the black half, which means that you cannot separate the white from the black or the black from the white completely.

Paradox

I have a feeling about the sixth point the author mentions in the article: “The space should welcome both silence and speech”. I have a memorable experience of paradox of silence and speech. I was taught to not to speak too much when I was a kid and people in my country often said that “silence is gold”. People believe that People who talk much would expose their weakness and ignorance and got attacked easily. There is a old Chinese saying: “ The bird which flies the highest get shot.” So everyone would like to keep low- profile. You can always see a scenario in a class in China: A teacher asks a question, and nobody raises their hands. And there is an awkward silence spreading the whole classroom. And the silence keeps as long as the teacher waits. Surprisingly, I found some engineering classes in Purdue played the same show too. Differently, non-science/engineering classes encourage speech. I have already been given heads-up from one of my friend in Education Department that you have to be active and speak out a lot in class if you want to receive good grade. It seems that the American culture welcomes speech. So I am still struggling to find a balance between silence and speech, since now I am a little bit too silent.

Holding the Tension of Opposite

I think it is unwise to choose one side and abandon the opposite side. Half white and half black make the whole circle. Day and night make a whole day. In my opinion, the first step should be realizing the truth and embrace the paradox. Then you can figure out a way to hold the tension of opposite. Frankly speaking, it is an art to me.

The New Scholarship Requires a New Epistemology-Donald A. Schon

This article is kind of difficult to me, although it is shorter than the previous one. My focus on this article is reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. Reflection-in-action is that during the process of research or other things, keep evaluating and making proper changes. Reflection-on-action happens when the research or other things are done. Here is my example:
My research was “swimming pool chemistry” last semester. When I was testing samples, sometimes I got awkward numbers. So I started to wonder what was going on. Are the machine malfunctioned? Do I need to test extra samples? It is reflection-in-action. When I got back to my desk, analyzing and making conclusion, it is reflection-on-action.

Here is another example I heard from Sensen:
She likes cooking. I think she is a great cook. When she is making cookies, she thinks: “Maybe adding some white chocolate will be better.” It is reflection-in-action. After the cookies are taken out of the oven, she tastes it and thinks:” It is a good idea to add white chocolate.” It is reflection-on-action.

Honestly speaking, as engineers, we are all trained to have reflection-in/on-action when we are doing research. Keeping evaluating and making proper changes during or after research seems a pretty normal thing to do for me. I think this article explains simple things in a difficult way.