Introducing Engineering Students to Historical/Cultural Perspectives through Story-Centered On-Line Learning

Luis A Godoy
DOI: 10.4236/ce.2011.22009                

Abstract

Several authors argued that history of science should be an integral part of science education; however, there are many obstacles to carry out an implementation within this approach, including that lecturers normally lack a necessary historical background (a situation that is largely aggravated in engineering faculties), and the impossi- bility of including new courses or credits in an already tight curriculum. The development of on-line modules that engineering students can work outside their normal schedule of classes, introducing historical/cultural per- spectives, is presented in this paper. E-learning and knowledge management strategies are used in the context of science education at undergraduate and graduate levels. The approach is based on learning-by-doing in a virtual environment, and specifically presents story-centered activities, in which the student is faced with a problem and plays the role of an expert to provide a solution to the case. The specific case considered develops in the form of a controversy concerning the origin of the studies of column buckling. Two sets of information are available for navigation in the module: specific information that the student can explore (containing historical material di- rectly connected to the case provided), and more general information (providing the historical/cultural context to the problem). A first application has been made with civil engineering students, who had to write a two-page white paper as a consequence of their work on the problem. The interest generated in the participating students and the positive evaluation of their experience seems to indicate that this type of activity can serve to enhance traditional engineering lectures by incorporating a historical dimension. The present web-based approach could be extended to tackle similar conflicts in fields for which there is ample documentation available in the literature or in other historical episodes which may lead to rich discussions.

Keywords

E-Learning, Engineering Education, Historical Approach, Science Teaching

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Ashman, A. F., & Conway, R. N. F. (1997). An introduction to cognitive education. London: Routledge.
[2]	Benvenutto, E. (1991). An introduction to the history of structural mechanics. New York: Springer-Verlag.
[3]	Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. D. (1999). How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
[4]	Duschl, R. A., & Hamilton, R. J. (1992). Philosophy of science, cognitive psychology, and educational theory and practice, New York, NY: State University of New York Press.
[5]	Egan, K. (1986). Teaching as story-telling. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
[6]	Froyd, J. E. (2007). Evidence for the Efficacy of Student-Active Learning Pedagogies. PKAL (Project Kaleidoscope), URL (last checked March 15, 2011): http://www.pkal.org/documents/BibliographyofSALPedagogies.cfm
[7]	Godoy, L. A. (2006). Historical sense in the historians of the theory of elasticity. Meccanica, 41, 529-538. doi:10.1007/s11012-006-9001-2
[8]	Godoy, L. A. (2009a). Developing a computer-based simulated environment to learn on structural failures. In Proceedings of the ASEE annual conference. Austin.
[9]	Godoy, L. A. (2009b). Una revisión del programa de investigación sobre aprendizaje activo en un ambiente simulado desde la perspectiva de la educación en Ingeniería. Latin American and Caribbean Journal of Engineering Education, 3, 61-75.
[10]	Godoy, L. A. (2010a). Estabilidad de estructuras: Una perspectiva histórica. Barcelona: CIMNE.
[11]	Godoy, L. A. (2010b). Story-centered learning in a computer simulated environment. Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference. Louisville, KY.
[12]	Godoy, L. A. (2010c). Who Discovered Buckling? http://lef.uprm.edu/Historical%20investigation/index.html.
[13]	Herget, D. E. (Ed.) (1989). The history and philosophy of science and science teaching. Talahasee, FL: Florida State University.
[14]	Heyman, J. (1998). Structural analysis: A historical perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[15]	Klopfer, L. E. (1969a). Case histories and science education. San Francisco, CA: Wadsworth.
[16]	Klopfer, L. E. (1969b). The teaching of science and the history of science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 6, 87-95. doi:10.1002/tea.3660060116
[17]	Kragh, H. (1987). An introduction to the historiography of science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511622434
[18]	Matthews, M. R. (1994). Science teaching: The role of history and philosophy of science. New York: Routledge.
[19]	Piaget, J. (1972). Principles of genetic epistemology, New York: Basic Books.
[20]	Piaget, J. (1974). Biology and knowledge. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
[21]	Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. ASEE Journal of Engineering Education, 93, 223-231.
[22]	Schank, R. C. (2002). Designing world class E-learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.
[23]	Schank, R. C. (2005). Lessons in learning, E-learning, and training. New York: Pfeiffer (Wiley).
[24]	Schank, R. C., & Cleary, C. (1995). Engines for education. Hillsdale ,NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
[25]	Sch?n, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. New York: Jossey-Bass Publications (Wiley).
[26]	Timoshenko, S. (1953). History of strength of materials. New York: McGraw-Hill.
[27]	Truesdell, C. A. (1968). Essays in the history of mechanics. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
[28]	Vygotsky, L. S. (1931/1997b). Problems of general psychology. In R. W. Riber & A. S. Carton (Eds.), The collected works of LS Vygotsky, 1, New York: Plenum Press.
[29]	Vygotsky, L. S. (1931/1997a). The history of the development of higher mental functions, In R. W. Riber (Ed.), The collected works of LS Vygotsky, 4, New York: Plenum Press.