In an increasingly globalized world and with rapid advancement in technology, there is a need to grapple more intently with social implications of engineering and technology. In the engineering community, these trends direct us to more critically consider how engineering and technology affect humanity and to interact effectively in diverse populations. Empathy, an ability that is central to the process of understanding and considering others, has been recognized as a valuable competency in the education of engineers. In engineering education specifically, several studies have pursued definition of empathy in the engineering context and its importance in engineering curriculum. Studies suggest that service learning is a useful pedagogical approach for supporting students in the development of social competencies, including empathy. However, it is not clear how this development happens.
In this dissertation, I sought to understand engineering students' experiences in a service-learning context to learn the ways in which empathy emerged in their descriptions and the elements of participants' experiences that shaped their empathy development. My participants were fourteen engineering students from two institutions, a small private university and a large public university, with both groups involved in at least one-semester of a service-learning course. I describe my phenomenological approach to this investigation and share my findings. Notably, I found eight main themes in my investigation of the role of empathy within the service-learning experiences described namely: changing perspective about others, having a sense of responsibility to others, keeping an open mind, inquiring of stakeholders, seeing others' points of view, understanding others' situations, being able to adjust goals and compromise and recognizing and/or welcoming difference. Additionally, I found both elements of participants' experiences designed into the course and those that were unprecedented relevant in shaping their empathy development. I also discuss the implications of these findings for engineering education and practice. / Doctor of Philosophy / In an increasingly globalized world and with rapid advancement in technology, there is a need to think more intentionally about social implications of engineering and technology. These trends make is necessary for the engineering education to incorporate critical consideration of how engineering and technology affect humanity and how to interact effectively in diverse populations. Empathy, an ability that is central to the process of understanding and considering others, has been recognized as a valuable competency in the education of engineers. Studies suggest that service learning is a useful pedagogical approach for supporting students in the development of social competencies like empathy.
My aim in this dissertation was to understand engineering students' experiences in a service-learning context to learn the ways in which their descriptions reveal empathy and the elements within their context that shaped empathy development. My participants are fourteen engineering students from two institutions, a small private university and a large public university, with both groups involved in at least one-semester of a service-learning course. Having explored students' experiences, I discuss key findings about how and within which contexts empathy came to play in these experiences. There are many different ways that empathy can play a role within students' experiences in a service-learning context and many facets of an experience help draw out more empathic practices. In this dissertation, I discuss implications of these findings for engineering education and practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/99038 |
| Date | 17 June 2020 |
| Creators | Yeaman, Adetoun Oludara |
| Contributors | Engineering Education, Bairaktarova, Diana, Sochacka, Nicola, Reid, Kenneth J., Jones, Brett D., Baum Walker, Liesl M. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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