Engineers are NOT anti-social!

I really appreciated this week’s articles, in that they provided me with a prelude to the next round of discussions as we begin to answer the question, “What is Engineering?” Tomorrow, I am attending a workshop and as a result of this, will, unfortunately, not be able to enjoy a significant portion of tomorrow’s class discussion. However, in lieu of my absence, I just wanted to officially declare that contrary to popular belief, engineers are NOT anti-social! :-) Now before you put my name on a list for special prayer, let me clear that air and say that I am not actually upset about the assumption embedded in the statement just proclaimed, nor am I saying that this is everyone’s view of engineers. LOL. (This comment is just being used in direct response to some of the feedback I have received when talking to my friends who pursued fields of study other than engineering and to jumpstart another discussion.) Among other things, I found it very interesting that each of the articles for this week's readings contained references to the social dynamic of the engineering field – and not just confining this idea to the fact that we oftentimes work in teams to solve problems.

I think there's a lot of truth in Vygotsky’s philosophy of education – especially the claims that suggest the importance of social interaction during an educational experience (Noddings, 2007, p. 16). Now although I am not speaking about engineers as learners nor am I suggested that the articles for this week did either, to me, there is still a connection worth noting about the importance of social interaction within the engineering profession. Each of the articles alluded to the fact that engineers are not anti-social. See for yourself.

*Figueiredo referred to engineers as “social experts” because within their team, they created solutions that were of social and economic importance, and that customer satisfaction is at the forefront of each design.

*Jonassen, Strobel, and Lee interviewed many engineers and after coding the results and identifying themes among them, at least three suggested a social component:
E. Theme 5. Success is Rarely Measured by Engineering Standards (including the satisfaction of the customer)
G. Theme 7. Problem Solving Knowledge is Distributed Among Team Members
H. Theme 8. Most Problems Require Extensive Collaboration (with engineerings and those in other professions)

*Koen mentioned constraints and resources as important characteristics of engineering problems and in each of these sections, there were references to the involvement & interaction of those within and outside of the engineering field – and their significance in relation to the work that we do.

In closing, I really appreciated the sneak-peek into the next phase of the course via this week’s articles. Now I have at three articles to recommend to my friends who continue to tout that “engineers are ant-social!” LOL.

Reference:
Noddings, N. (2007). Philosophy of Education, 2nd Ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.