4TU Webinar | Reflection in Engineering Education | 22 May
22 May 2023 14:00 till 16:00 - Location: Online - By: Teaching Academy | Add to my calendar
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Reflection in Engineering Education
4TU.CEE Webinar - with Pleun Hermsen
Reflection is a term often heard. But what is meant by it in the context of engineering education? How do we see reflection being applied in engineering, and where and when? To what could it contribute? And what are the (pedagogical) challenges involved? In TU Delft’s 100 days of…REFLECTION festival, ‘Reflection in Engineering Education’ has been explored through journal clubs, conversations, presentations, a case pitching workshop, and peer exchange among university staff. The results of the 100 days of… festival trickled down in a white paper (read here) that aims to make reflecting more accessible and concrete within the context of TU Delft Engineering Education.
Preliminary programme of this webinar
| 14:00 | Pleun and Remon present the essentials of our White paper Reflection in Engineering Education |
| 14:20 | Participants share their ‘reflection teaching’ experiences and position them in the framework presented |
| 14:50 | Break |
| 15:00 | Pleun presents some of the teaching materials she developed over the years |
| 15:25 | Participants tell/share if they have certain teaching materials (that they can share) |
| 15:40 | Wrap up and sharing of take aways |
Background
“Reflection is a process in which people make sense of and interpret a specific experience to yield insight into where they stand and how to go on.”
Reflection is not an activity in itself; it is a means, not an end. After all, you reflect on something. The paper distinguishes six domains on which we can reflect: [i] societal challenges and societal developments that impact (the work of) engineers, [ii] the products and artefacts that engineers develop, [iii] the development processes in which engineers are involved producing those products, [iv] the interactions and collaborations with other professional and/or societal stakeholders during those processes, [v] the student’s learning journey and experience, and [vi] oneself, including one’s personal and professional identity and behaviour.
In addition to the six domains mentioned above, the paper differentiates between two reflection perspectives: an action perspective (Doing) and a formative, contemplative perspective (Growth). On the one hand, reflection can be very helpful in acquiring more insight into how to produce better products, models, designs, prototypes, services, work processes, or procedures. It has a good fit, intuitively speaking, with the role of an engineer as an analytical problem solver, maker, designer, and manufacturer. But reflection also offers insight into oneself, one’s own values and how one relates to the surrounding world. This perspective is therefore about the engineer as a person.
From a pedagogical and instructional design point of view, many questions arise about the kinds of exercises, teaching methods, social safety issues, and assessment strategies, to name but a few. The paper presents many questions to consider when you want to integrate reflection in your course or program. And these are the kind of questions we would like to further discuss with our engineering education community. Interested? Click the button to register for this webinar on the 4TU.CEE event page.