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S. van Dommelen

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Unlocking transformative reflection in engineering education

Conference paper (2023) - P. E.A. Hermsen, S. van Dommelen, P. Hueso Espinosa, M. E.D. van den Bogaard
Engineers need to be socially responsible, ethically aware and deliver positive contributions to the wicked problems2 of today's global challenges. In navigating these challenges, being able to reflect is a necessary prerequisite. But if we simply ask students reflective questions, they tend to give us mostly socially desirable answers. Our university initiated an institute-wide program focused on creating learning experiences and environments for transformative reflection instead of superficial reflection. In this paper we present design principles for transformative reflection based on a literature overview and the program's accumulated experience. The principles are I) Six domains for reflection on engineering issues, II) The differentiation between the internal and external perspectives, III) Our approach to design for context-specificity of transformative reflective experiences, and IV) Four mechanisms that foster transformative reflection. ...
Don't we all sometimes seek the perspective of someone unrelated to our work, to get unstuck, or when we seek creativity? Engineers, educators, and students put their trust into science, protocols, procedures and models. Rightfully so, from the perspective of the laws of engineering this makes sense. This also explains why when people deal with challenges, they often tackle them (consciously or unconsciously) with their preferred strategies (Hayashi 2018) (Mezirow 2000). However, these preferred strategies might offer a false sense of security because they oversimplify the complicated nature of the challenge. People might focus on a part of problem which is easy to solve rather than addressing the bigger networked problem (Kahneman 2013). In dealing with complex problems, it is helpful for engineers to become aware of habits and open eyes to other ways of seeing and doing, as solving (today's) multidisciplinary wicked problems often require that. (Braun 2021; Braun and Kramer 2015; Kramer and Braun 2018; Seniuk Cicek et al. 2021; Veltman, Van Keulen, and Voogt 2019). Recognizing one's own perspective is the first step towards valuing other perspectives or approaches to a problem. By understanding 'our own eyes', we can connect with and value other perspectives and alternate ways of doing something. This workshop introduces reflection through third person perspectives, to help participants recognize the habits that are embedded in their own perspectives. Participants can later apply the method and material used in the workshop in their own educational context. It is suitable for students, researchers, and teachers. Learning outcomes • Participants will become aware of their perspective in a safe and interesting way. • Participants will experience that their own perspective impacts the way they approach (work) situations, by reflecting on these situations through others' perspective. • Participants will receive access to the material so that they can use the format of the workshop as a tool to use with their students or peers. • In the final conference proceedings, we will include the type of insights participants found through our workshop, what they might expect the value to be for (their) students, the impressions of the participants about what worked well and how participant intent to use it in their context. ...
Are you witnessing students facing concerns, difficulties, and problems throughout their educational journey? Perhaps you know PhDs, lecturers, or support staff who encounter challenges in their educational, research, or teaching paths. Openly addressing these issues can prove beneficial in all of these scenarios! While coaching is a potential solution, it can be time-consuming and demanding, right? Instead, let them have a Campfire Talk: a non-intrusive and socially safe serious game that requires no supervision. It provides a platform for discussing struggles that in practice are often difficult to address or overlooked but can deeply affect individual or group behavior. During this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to experience the game firsthand, followed by an exploration of its underlying mechanisms and potential application in their own educational settings. An open-source version of this game will be available for participants. ...
Conference paper (2022) - P.E.A. Hermsen, S. van Dommelen, P. Hueso Espinosa
We observe that it is difficult to adopt reflection in engineering education. Two reasons for this are that literature on reflection has a multitude of definitions for the word 'reflection' and reflection is deeply context dependent. This means we spot a couleur locale in the definition, relevance and habit of reflection. Brilliant ideas from literature and best practices of others don't survive the battlefield of teaching practice, and the application of seemingly clear-cut concepts mismatch with the messy reality of a new context.
We believe reflection requires particular attention to implementation. With our university-wide program we grow, foster, and embed reflection as a core practice in our disciplinary education and organization. Our guide in this innovation process is the model by Hamza & Regehr on eco-normalization, that describes the interaction between the innovation, the system where it is embedded, and the people doing the work.
Moreover, to align this interaction and to embed couleur locale, we use co-creation as one of our main tools. In the workshop we (I) deconstruct the couleur locale of participants' contexts, (II) analyze the stimulating and limiting interactions between system, innovation and people doing the work, (Ill) ground this in theory and share an example to illustrate how we manage that in our own messy reality. For many participants our workshop was a hands-on experience with the ambiguity of reflection as a concept as well as its implementation in our engineering education. ...