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L.P.J. van den Burg
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No Time To Waste
A Plea for Immediate Implementation of Sustainability in Engineering Education
There are many ways of integrating sustainability into engineering education. While renewing the Bachelor’s Programme in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences at TU Delft, The Netherlands, we discovered that these ways can easily lead to a stalemate: while there is the forward thrust of a curriculum renewal with its strict deadlines, uncertainty about useable concepts to integrate sustainability can cause delays and the avoidance of fundamental decisions. In this practice paper we give a brief overview of the ways to integrate sustainability we have considered, and explain how we subsequently chose what to do first and why. After an inventory of UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the current courses, we reasoned that our faculty themes on sustainability were not directive enough, and that sustainability frameworks were not fully developed yet. Therefore we adopted a twofold method, top-down and bottom-up: redesigning the curriculum based on a preliminary framework, and connecting it with the SDGs in all 24 courses. This new combination did not provide a 'finished' sustainable curriculum, but does allow for follow-up steps that will update it based on fully developed frameworks and sustainable competences in the learning objectives. Our conclusion is that any method of integration may work, but that change can only start by choosing a method and going with it. Our advice is therefore nothing less than a plea for a cultural shift: to break the stalemate by choosing any way of implementing sustainability as soon as possible, in order to gradually transform education as sustainability.
...
There are many ways of integrating sustainability into engineering education. While renewing the Bachelor’s Programme in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences at TU Delft, The Netherlands, we discovered that these ways can easily lead to a stalemate: while there is the forward thrust of a curriculum renewal with its strict deadlines, uncertainty about useable concepts to integrate sustainability can cause delays and the avoidance of fundamental decisions. In this practice paper we give a brief overview of the ways to integrate sustainability we have considered, and explain how we subsequently chose what to do first and why. After an inventory of UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the current courses, we reasoned that our faculty themes on sustainability were not directive enough, and that sustainability frameworks were not fully developed yet. Therefore we adopted a twofold method, top-down and bottom-up: redesigning the curriculum based on a preliminary framework, and connecting it with the SDGs in all 24 courses. This new combination did not provide a 'finished' sustainable curriculum, but does allow for follow-up steps that will update it based on fully developed frameworks and sustainable competences in the learning objectives. Our conclusion is that any method of integration may work, but that change can only start by choosing a method and going with it. Our advice is therefore nothing less than a plea for a cultural shift: to break the stalemate by choosing any way of implementing sustainability as soon as possible, in order to gradually transform education as sustainability.
Who am I learning to become?
Integrating personal development in curriculum design
In this case study, we answer the question: what are design characteristics for a personal development line integrated in undergraduate engineering curricula? We investigated the development of such a line in a Bachelor of Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences in The Netherlands. We documented and analysed the preparation of and discussions during three design sessions, where teachers and students collaboratively created the personal development line.
This personal development line has two main aims: to guide students in developing their personal and professional identities and promote self-directed learning in the curriculum. Reflective skills are playing a key role in this. Four levels on which students reflect in relation to personal development in the curriculum were identified: self, education, practice, and society. Each Personal Development Week in the design proposal touches upon one of these levels and makes use of three generic elements: inspiration, contemplation, and perspective. Three tensions in the curriculum arose during the design sessions. First, the question if it is necessary to give students direction by assignments or to trust they will reflect by themselves.Second, if that direction should be shaped by specific writing assignments or if students should be left to work with a free form. Finally, if the reflection should be connected to what students learn inside the university or rather to societal challenges that they perceive outside of their studies.
The personal development line in this research is one answer to the questions arising from these three tensions, yet it is not the only answer. Both the identified tensions and the designed reflection model can be a starting point for other curriculum designers to position personal development in their curriculum. Personal development can then become a key ingredient in the education of a diverse group of reflexive engineers at universities anywhere in the world. ...
This personal development line has two main aims: to guide students in developing their personal and professional identities and promote self-directed learning in the curriculum. Reflective skills are playing a key role in this. Four levels on which students reflect in relation to personal development in the curriculum were identified: self, education, practice, and society. Each Personal Development Week in the design proposal touches upon one of these levels and makes use of three generic elements: inspiration, contemplation, and perspective. Three tensions in the curriculum arose during the design sessions. First, the question if it is necessary to give students direction by assignments or to trust they will reflect by themselves.Second, if that direction should be shaped by specific writing assignments or if students should be left to work with a free form. Finally, if the reflection should be connected to what students learn inside the university or rather to societal challenges that they perceive outside of their studies.
The personal development line in this research is one answer to the questions arising from these three tensions, yet it is not the only answer. Both the identified tensions and the designed reflection model can be a starting point for other curriculum designers to position personal development in their curriculum. Personal development can then become a key ingredient in the education of a diverse group of reflexive engineers at universities anywhere in the world. ...
In this case study, we answer the question: what are design characteristics for a personal development line integrated in undergraduate engineering curricula? We investigated the development of such a line in a Bachelor of Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences in The Netherlands. We documented and analysed the preparation of and discussions during three design sessions, where teachers and students collaboratively created the personal development line.
This personal development line has two main aims: to guide students in developing their personal and professional identities and promote self-directed learning in the curriculum. Reflective skills are playing a key role in this. Four levels on which students reflect in relation to personal development in the curriculum were identified: self, education, practice, and society. Each Personal Development Week in the design proposal touches upon one of these levels and makes use of three generic elements: inspiration, contemplation, and perspective. Three tensions in the curriculum arose during the design sessions. First, the question if it is necessary to give students direction by assignments or to trust they will reflect by themselves.Second, if that direction should be shaped by specific writing assignments or if students should be left to work with a free form. Finally, if the reflection should be connected to what students learn inside the university or rather to societal challenges that they perceive outside of their studies.
The personal development line in this research is one answer to the questions arising from these three tensions, yet it is not the only answer. Both the identified tensions and the designed reflection model can be a starting point for other curriculum designers to position personal development in their curriculum. Personal development can then become a key ingredient in the education of a diverse group of reflexive engineers at universities anywhere in the world.
This personal development line has two main aims: to guide students in developing their personal and professional identities and promote self-directed learning in the curriculum. Reflective skills are playing a key role in this. Four levels on which students reflect in relation to personal development in the curriculum were identified: self, education, practice, and society. Each Personal Development Week in the design proposal touches upon one of these levels and makes use of three generic elements: inspiration, contemplation, and perspective. Three tensions in the curriculum arose during the design sessions. First, the question if it is necessary to give students direction by assignments or to trust they will reflect by themselves.Second, if that direction should be shaped by specific writing assignments or if students should be left to work with a free form. Finally, if the reflection should be connected to what students learn inside the university or rather to societal challenges that they perceive outside of their studies.
The personal development line in this research is one answer to the questions arising from these three tensions, yet it is not the only answer. Both the identified tensions and the designed reflection model can be a starting point for other curriculum designers to position personal development in their curriculum. Personal development can then become a key ingredient in the education of a diverse group of reflexive engineers at universities anywhere in the world.