Practice Papers
Document Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Today’s society is impacted by complex, fast and continuously changing problems. These need to be tackled inter-, multi and transdisciplinary. At the University of Twente, we have developed a new CBL minor Intelligence, creativity, and responsible technological innovation in societal transformations, (ICR&TIST), which focuses on research skills in complex socio-technological problem-solving contexts. The design of this minor has been guided by new insights from long-running research aimed at developing a Philosophy of Science for the Engineering Sciences and extensive experiences with engineering education in project-based learning (PjBL). Education in scientific research tends to focus on academic contexts, while scientific research in real-world problem-contexts (e.g., sustainability) requires the ability to effectively and responsibly construct relevant, reliable and intelligible knowledge for the benefit of the concrete, local problem and possible solutions, using everything science has to offer (knowledge, methods, instruments, mathematical tools). This type of scientific research calls for a new paradigm, called an engineering paradigm of science. Conceptual modelling (rather than hypothesis testing) fits better the core activity of this type of scientific research and should therefore be seen as an overarching skill. The educational design of the minor has adopted conceptual modelling as the overarching learning objective. This new concept, how to work with the accompanying conceptual modelling methodology (B&K method) and understand the underlying philosophical insights appears exciting and challenging for the multi-disciplinary educational-design team. This paper will elaborate on the educational design process, the resulting design of the minor, and preliminary findings in the pilot-phase.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21427/ZDX4-VV41
Recommended Citation
Boon, M. (2023). Conceptual Modelling As An Overarching Research Skill In Engineering Education. European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). DOI: 10.21427/ZDX4-VV41
Creative Commons License
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