What the new engineer needs to know.

My ASME magazine (Mechanical Engineering) arrived last week, and as I was flipping through it, I came across an article titled, "The Unwritten Laws of Engineering".  This title was first published in 1944 as as series of three articles in Mechanical Engineering, written by W.J. King.  The articles were later compiled as a book, with revisions and additions by James G. Skakoon.  (Most recent publication date is 2001)  The first of the three articles focuses on the new engineer, or "What the Beginner Needs to Learn at Once".

Several things struck me when I read this article.  First, that what a beginner needs to learn at once is not really all that different in 2010 than it was in 1944.  The "unwritten laws" addressed attitudes and behaviors expected of professionals.  The laws make clear that 1) you are part of a whole, 2) your part of the whole is important and expected to be accomplished, no matter how small it seems, 3) the way you relate to and communicate with others will affect your productivity, and 4) that whole that you are part of is a hierarchy, and as a beginner you are not at the top.  On a personal level I find these to be absolutely true, and though most students I work with seem to know them, occasionally there are a few that either don't know or don't believe the truth in these statements. 

Second, there was nothing in the laws that was specific to engineering, or was technical in any way.  There were a few that touched on business aspects of engineering (e.g. "promises, schedules, and estimates are necessary and improtant instruments in a well-ordered business"), but nothing about the technical competence.  It made me wonder if either technical competence was assumed, or if technical competence was not a priority.  I hope it is the former and not the latter. 

Refecting on this article, I see some threads that tie this to the article we read by Dall'Alba, and my earlier post about that article.  (See http://ene-hp-f10.blogspot.com/2010/09/epistemology-and-ontology.html for previous post.)  In particular, I suggested that "what we call formal engineering education is primarily the epistmological portion of becomming an engineer, and intern/co-op experiences primarily the onotological portion of becomming an engineer." 

Since the "laws" are not epistomological in nature, and are more centered on a way of being, I would classify them as ontological.  So here's my big question:  if they are "unwritten laws" for (dare I say) the way of being a new engineer in industry, how can we, as educators, be sure that our students learn them?

P.S.  If anyone is interested in the 5 page article, I'm happy to share copies.  Just let me know.