Riley

I loved this article. It really captures a lot of the reasons why I am interested in Engineering Education. I believe very strongly in engineering as a tool for social change, both in terms of using engineering to improve peoples' lives, the environment, etc. and encouraging a more diverse community of engineers as a means of individual empowerment. I am, however, stuck on two things.
I have been thinking about issues of social justice for a long time, and always come back to the following problem. What is the best way for me to be an agent of change given that I am empowered, i.e. I am white, male, middle-class, and heterosexual. I am aware of the issues that I am trying to deal with in my classroom or employment, but do I have the legitimacy to help others learn how to deal with these issues themselves?
I also wonder how does one get old-school, traditional (sorry, Alice!) engineering departments to start thinking along these lines. As Dr. Riley mentioned at the beginning of her article, Smith is unique in offering the first engineering program at a women's college. One could potentially see a similar approach at a historically black college or university. But my mechanical engineering professors here at Purdue? It almost makes me laugh (or cry) to think about the likelihood. I think that we are just getting to the point where engineers are starting to acknowledge the value of diversity in engineering and not just see it as an additional, unwelcome constraint.
Finally, as long as academic promotion is primarily based on publications produced and research money brought in, there is very little incentive for new or exisiting faculty to really focus on their teaching. To affect real change in engineering pedagogy, a stronger focus needs to be placed on teaching ability and the value of improving teaching methods.

Class Observation

ENGR 195
Dr. Imbrie
Time: Oct 27 09:30 am-10:30 am
Location: ARMS B061

Noddings 5-7 (sort of)

Having an understanding of logic, epistemology, and an understanding of educational research are all important subject, and especially important if one is going to do research in education. I also believe that if one is going to undertake the task of teaching, one needs to have some sort idea of how people learn, create knowledge, etc. and develop a personal philosophy and theory of learning that influences there teaching practice. K12 teachers are required to develop this philsophy and understand basic theories of child development, epistemology, etc. Many professors and students of education immerse themselves in these topics. Yet I wonder how many professors of engineering (or any other discipline outside of education) have deeply thought about these issues. Most professors do not do any classwork to prepare them to teach, and outside of a personal interest in education or improving their teaching practice, they tend to simply teach the way that they were taught. As a result, you wind up with many professors that are brilliant researchers and well respected in their fields who cannot teach. Conversely, you can also have professors with little or no formal background or training in education that wind up being excellent teachers. This leads me to my two questions: How do theories of learning and knowledge actually affect the way that one teaches, and how do we become agents of change to get professors of engineering (that are not us!) to really think about ways of improving their teaching practice?