Educating engineers for environmentally sensitive practice

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis addresses the question: "How can we educate undergraduate engineering students for environmentally sensitive practice?" In particular, the thesis explores possibilities for affective (attitude-related) learning goals for environmental education in engineering education. The thesis includes a case study in which an engineering hydrology course was altered to include more information about fish, and an assessment was done to determine whether the students who had used the altered curriculum showed greater awareness of the life-context of hydrology than those who had used the original curriculum. The case study is supported by preparatory research into (a) the expectations articulated by professional engineering associations about environmentally sensitive engineering practice; (b) the factors and players influencing environmental education in engineering education; (c) the literature regarding affective learning goals in environmental education, as it relates to engineering education; and (d) acceptable scholarly standards for evaluation of engineering courses and programs. The thesis findings reveal that expectations of environmentally sensitive engineering practice are high, but the response of the engineering education community is still in the early stages of development. Engineering education research has little overlap with environmental education research; because of the focus in engineering education on "knowledge" goals, the role of affective learning has thus far been neglected as a research area in environmental education in engineering education. The contribution of this civil engineering doctoral thesis on the subject of engineering education is its attempt to bring together ideas and practices from engineering education and the field of educational research in general. Because the doctoral work was based in an engineering school, supervised by engineering professors, and framed as an action research project, it stimulated discussion and learning about environmental education in engineering education, and catalysed movement by engineering professors toward better understanding of the impact of their environmental teaching.Ph.D