Design Knowing & Learning: A Socially Mediated Activity

Publisher Summary This chapter illustrates how the context of the engineering classroom might be transformed to better accord with the context of engineering practice through the introduction of open-ended, design-type exercises. While faculty can energize students with talk of creativity, and engage them in the act itself, the subject matter is considered “soft” and lacking in rigor when compared to courses in control theory, signals and systems, thermodynamics, computer science, or engineering mechanics. The analytic/synthetic distinction is alive and well in engineering education. This chapter explores this dichotomy, not in order to deny the differences between science based, theoretical knowledge, and design thinking and knowing, but rather to understand these two forms better and how they relate to the engineering practice. The way to better prepare students for engineering practice is to transform the context of the engineering classroom, not just in those courses explicitly labeled “design,” but across the board, starting with the engineering science courses at the sophomore level. Through the integration of open-ended, design-type exercises into the curriculum, a dramatic change in the atmosphere and context of the classroom can be achieved, and the fundamentals still be addressed with rigor.