Professors responding to the new challenges on engineering profession: bringing new values into the classroom

Professors responding to the new challenges on engineering profession: bringing new values into the classroom Josep Lobera* 1 , Agustí Pérez-Foguet 2 , Cristina Escrigas 1 1 Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI) Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) Edifici TG (S1), C/ Jordi Girona, 31, 08034 Barcelona – Spain e-mail: [email protected] du 2 E.T.S de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de Barcelona Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Módulo C2, Campus Nord, c/ Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034 Barcelona – Spain ABSTRACT Education in values is seen as a continuous process that begins at the childhood. It is unquestionably influenced by the family and the society. University should consolidate the formation of the political, ethical and moral values acquired in the former educational levels, as well as to form and to develop the professional values (Lourdes Zumalacárregui and Alonso, 2002). Formation of values is not an addition al content in the curriculum, but a reality that should be considered in the whole work system and activi ties at the university through all the dimensions of the educational process. In the engineer education, values are and always have been present. Yet these values not always have been adapted to the reality of the society in which engineers develop their profes sional careers and lives. The last decade has seen a remarkable change in the economic and social landscape of society. Many societal trends and needs call fo r engineers to broaden t heir outlooks, have more flexible career options, and work closely and e ffectively with persons of quite different backgrounds. Yet the education and general orientation of engineers have been directed inward toward the profession, rather than outward toward the rest of society and the world (King, 2006), and in some classrooms there are transmitted va lues that were for the first or the second industrial revolution. The convergence of the Spanish te rtiary education system into the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) represents an opportunity to introdu ce new educational methodologies that could facilitate the development of the knowledge, atti tudes and procedures that are needed to the new professional and personal contexts. Some teachers at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) are developing a project of educational innovation in which they aim to inco rporate the following issues transversally into the technical subjects that they give nowadays: values and ethics in engineering, participative learning, transdisciplinarity, multiculturalism and diversity, and human sustainable development. This paper draws on this experience and it treats the opportunities and difficulties which teachers face bringing new values into the classroom

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