Engineering in Society (1985) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 115-119
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From page 115... ...
Of course, there is no fixed law that says all engineering degree programs must attempt to realize the same goals, and in such a large and heterogeneous field one would expect considerable diversity. But the engineering community does exercise an unusual degree of oversight in the area of professional education and it is not inclined to allow a great number of conceptions of the purpose of engineering education to flourish simultaneously in the name of tolerance.
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From page 116... ...
An ideal of engineering education diametrically opposed to Florman's informs the many programs in engineering technology that have been set up recently. As Melvin Kranzberg has pointed out, these new associate and bachelor degree programs in engineering technology represent both a conservative reaction to the growing emphasis on basic science and engineering design in mainline engineering programs and an innovation that increases the flexibility and hence resilience of the engineering profession.
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From page 117... ...
There is considerable evidence that engineering educators have been continuously adapting the content of the scientific/technical side of the engineering curricula to the needs of the profession. In recent years the number of required technical courses associated with specific engineering specialties has been reduced while the number of required courses in basic science and mathematics has been increased.
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From page 118... ...
The next step, according to Melvin Kranzberg, involved the American Society for Engineering Education which, with the aid of a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, prepared a report on general education in engineering. Attempts to implement the recommendations of this report led to rapid expansion of the humanities and social science departments at many engineering schools and the development of what Kranzberg calls the "contextual approach" to the presentation of these subjects to engineering students.
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From page 119... ...
But even in those schools where engineering educators have effective control over the curricular requirements set for their students, the question of what subjects students ought to study in the required social/humanities courses continues to occasion lively debate. And indeed it should, for identifying and articulating~the social and cultural factors of greatest importance to contemporary engineering, and the ways in which engineers experience them and respond to them, is a challenging task.
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