Assessment of Learning Outcomes Working Group

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Introducing and embedding Sustainable Development
into your Engineering Curriculum- an online
seminar
Dr Simon Steiner - Academic Advisor Dr Roger
Penlington - Associate
ESD online seminar 02-02-11
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Introducing and embedding Sustainable
Development (1)

• An online seminar for teaching staff and
  programme leaders who
• wish to encourage their students to more
  proactively engage with the topic of sustainable
  development,
• Want their students to become global citizens on
  their graduation.
• The seminar uses one of the Centre's latest
  Teaching Guides
• to explore ways in which you might wish to
  introduce and embed sustainable development into
  the teaching curriculum.

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Introducing and embedding Sustainable
Development (2)

• Content
• An initial discussion of what is understood to be
  sustainable development,
• looking at approaches and examples of how
  sustainability can be brought into both current
  curricula and into new courses.
• Concluding discussion of how we might aspire for
  our graduate engineers to become more
  globally-aware citizens. 

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Introducing and embedding Sustainable
Development (3)

• Outcomes
• a better understanding of sustainable
  development,
• a better awareness of several approaches to the
  embedding of sustainable development into
  established curricula and knowledge on how to
  better-design courses that incorporate
  sustainability-thinking
• an appreciation of the wider global context of
  sustainable development and on graduate engineers
  becoming global citizens.
• These outcomes will be achieved by referral to
  and recommendation of pedagogic resources and
  case studies in sustainable development, and from
  peer discussion.

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Why is sustainable development (SD) in the
curriculum?

• Sustainability and achieving a sustainable future
  is all around us
• The aim in our teaching is to be
  non-prescriptive, but rather to encourage
  engagement by
• Exemplary behaviour and activity
• Personal action
• Leadership
• The aim is therefore to be inspirational with
  students, for them to engage with SD both in
  their curriculum and beyond, to become global
  citizens on graduation

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Definitions and drivers

• The Brundland Report 1987
• meeting the needs of the present without
• compromising the ability of future generations
  to meet their own needs.
• UN Conference 1992 Kyoto protocol 1995
• The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
  Development (2005-14)
• UNESCO, Forum for the Future
• Engineering and higher education
• HEFCE ? CETLs, Higher Education Partnership
  (HEEPS), Engineering Council (EC), RAEng, EPC

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Engineering Council ? UK-SPEC ? teaching (1)

• Six principles that define the role of a
  professional engineer
• 1. Contribute to building a sustainable society,
  present
• and future.
• 2. Apply professional and responsible judgement
  and
• take a leadership role.
• 3. Do more than just comply with legislation and
  codes.
• 4. Use resources efficiently and effectively.
• 5. Seek multiple views to solve sustainability
  challenges.
• 6. Manage risk to minimise adverse impact on
  people
• or environment.

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Engineering Council ? UK-SPEC ? teaching (2)

• Formation of a professional engineer (UK-SPEC)
• A chartered engineer is expected to be able to
  undertake engineering activities in a way that
  contributes to sustainable development
• Support to teaching
• Pedagogic resources
• Guides and Reports
• Case Studies and approaches

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A note on terminology
As we have seen engineering education holds a
position of considerable responsibility within
SD. With this in mind we shall employ the term
Engineering for Sustainable Development (EngSD)
to distinguish it from Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD). Later in this presentation we
consider the future role of our graduates as
Global Engineers, which is not to be confused
with the Globalisation of engineering or
Internationalisation of education.
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Approaches to the introduction and embedding of
sustainable development..(1)

• There would appear, nominally, to be two
  alternative approaches when considering how best
  to include sustainability into the teaching
  curriculum
• to embed within existing content, or
• to offer stand-alone material.

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Approaches to the introduction and embedding of
sustainable development..(2)

• Chadha describes 3 models of skill development
• Embedding promoting the development of 'know
  how' without direct reference to developing
  transferable skills.
• Bolting-on skills being developed independently
  of the discipline.
• Integrating skills developed explicitly within
  the core discipline with a balance of emphasis on
  transferable skills and technical
  abilities.
• Chadha D, A Curriculum model for
  transferable skills development. Engineering
  Education. Vol 1, Issue 1, 2006 pp19-24

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Examples of established practice...(1)

• Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professors
  in Sustainable Design - prominent engineers were
  appointed as a Visiting Professor at a given
  university. Each VP is contracted to provide
  teaching support in sustainable design based on
  their industrial experiences, and to work in
  partnership with an engineering professor at that
  university.
• Examples of their work are given in the Academys
  Guiding Principles publication (RAEng 2005).

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Examples of established practice...(2)
The establishment of a module at Manchester again
suggests a stand-alone approach but because
of its interdisciplinary nature bolt-on may allow
student driven routes to greater integration
across the curriculum.
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Examples of established practice...(3)
Resources web sites have been created as outcomes
of various projects and to meet local teaching
needs, sharing of these gives an ideal starting
point to any academic seeking to introduce
sustainable development
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Examples of established practice...(4)
Case studies and manuals are also a good starting
point.
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What do these examples tell us?

• These examples do show that sustainable
  development is more developed in some areas of
  engineering more than others,
• also there is a tendency to produce teaching
  material which takes an analytical approach
  rather than employment of discussion and
  exploration of what may be very complex
  situations without obvious paths to a resolution

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Will this lead to a change?

• Outstanding issues
• Crowded curriculum and approaches to delivery
• Staff experience and motivation
• Establishing an understanding of threshold
• There is much scope for discussion of these points

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Student and Professional body views...(1)
This study has set-out to augment published data
on student perceptions of sustainability, a
questionnaire followed by focus groups allowed
issues raised by responses to the questionnaire
to be explored more fully. Responses to the
questionnaire came from four HEIs, three in the
North East of England and one in Scotland,
followed up by three focus groups with students
drawn from two of the English HEIs
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Student and Professional body views...(2)

• It is clear that these students were seeking a
  discipline focus to SD, interest in energy use
  and material recovery, perhaps in conflict with
  the needs of UK-SPEC
• Contribute to building a sustainable society,
  present and future

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Student and Professional body views...(3)
Is sustainability important, does it worry
you? All respondents said that sustainability was
very important. Yes, definitely. Its the most
important thing. Yes, it is hugely important
to me. Its very important as we are going to
run out and by the time we do run out it will be
too late to do anything, for example when all
the oil runs out what will we do about cars?
.. Yes I do care as I want my children when I
have children to have a good life. We have the
technology to be more efficient but people have
more and more gadgets these days, loads of things
superfluous to needs that they dont need.
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Student and Professional body views...(4)
The observations drawn from the PEI responses i.
Some professional bodies are recognising and
defining their expectations of what SD means for
professional practice. ii. Clear examples of good
practice exist, possibly giving these disciplines
enhanced recruitment opportunities. iii. The
professional bodies who have not clearly stated
their definition of sustainability and what they
see as the boundary to their professions role
within a sustainable society are not actively
leading the incorporation of these competencies
within the undergraduate curriculum. iv. There
are significant differences between PEIs in the
expectation of how far professional engineers are
anticipated to aspire to undertake a leading role
within wider society
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How does Engineering for SustainableDevelopment
fit within the curriculum? ..(1)
EngSD has a motivational value, which means that
it may be used to broaden the learners
perspective. The linking of learning with
professional formation and the recognised need
for graduates to be self-reflective has led
Mitchell, Carew and Clift (2004) to propose
the following principles
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How does Engineering for SustainableDevelopment
fit within the curriculum? ..(2)

• help the learner appreciate why consideration of
  sustainability is in their interest
• use appropriate pedagogies for active engagement
  with issues
• help learners gain plural perspectives
• encourage learners to continue thinking about
  issues beyond their formal education.

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Towards the global engineer
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Towards the global engineer
Various projects are now underway which start to
open-up new learning opportunities, within the
discipline and placing the discipline within the
wider society, incorporating SD with other
challenges of professional practice such as ethics
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Resources - general

• Dawe, G., Jucker, R. and Martin, S. (2005)
  Sustainable Development in Higher Education
  Current Practice and Future Developments. A
  report for the Higher Education Academy.
  www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/ourwork/susta
  inability/dawe_report_2005
• Engineering Council (2008) UK Standard for
  Professional Engineering Competence Engineering
  Technician, Incorporated Engineer and Chartered
  Engineer Standard. www.engc.org.uk/ukspec
• Engineering Council (2009) Guidance on
  Sustainability for the Engineering Profession.
• www.engc.org.uk/sustainability
• Forum for the Future (2004) Learning and Skills
  for Sustainable Development Developing a
  sustainability literate society.
• www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/files/learningandski
  lls.pdf
• Royal Academy of Engineering (2005) Engineering
  for Sustainable Development Guiding Principles.
• www.raeng.org.uk/events/pdf/Engineering_for_Susta
  inable_Development.pdf
• United Nations (1987) Our Common Future Report
  of the World Commission on Environment and
  Development.
• www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm

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Resources specific (1)

• Slide 11 Chadha D (2006) A curriculum model for
  transferable skills development, Engineering
  Education Vol 1 issue 1 pp19-24
  http//www.engsc.ac.uk/journal/index.php/ee/articl
  e/view/38/54
• Slide 12 - Royal Academy of Engineering (2005)
  Engineering for Sustainable Development Guiding
  Principles.www.raeng.org.uk/events/pdf/Engineerin
  g_for_Sustainable_Development.pdf
• Slide 13 The Higher Education Academy
  Engineering Subject Centre (2008) Education for
  Sustainable Development in Engineering Report of
  a Delphi Consultation http//www.engsc.ac.uk/down
  loads/scholarart/delphi-consultation.pdf
• Slide 14 The Environmental Association for
  Universities and Colleges (2009) Creating the
  Conditions for Embedding Sustainable Development
  in the Curriculumhttp//www.eauc.org.uk/sorted/fi
  les/creating_the_condittions_fot_embedding_sustain
  able_developmentpdf
• Slide 14 Loughborough University (2004) Toolbox
  for sustainable design educationhttp//www.lboro.
  ac.uk/research/susdesign/LTSN/introduction/Introdu
  ction.htm
• Slide 14 Bournemouth University The Higher
  Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre
  (2011) Socio-centric Sustainable Design
  http//www.sociocentricdesign.com/
• Slide 14 Lilley D (2009) Design-Behaviour.co.uk
  http//www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/cddl/

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Resources specific (2)

• Slide 15 Azapagic A, Perdan S, Clift R. (Eds)
  (2004) Sustainable Development in Practice case
  studies for engineers and scientists, Wiley
• Slide 15 Stasinopoulos P, Smith M, Hargroves K
  Desha C (2008) Whole System Design An
  Integrated Approach to Sustainable Engineering,
  Earthscan http//www.naturaledgeproject.net/Whole
  _System_Design.aspx
• Slide 18 The Higher Education Academy
  Engineering Subject Centre (2007) The wider
  teaching of sustainability based upon student
  perceptions and the expectations of professional
  bodies http//www.engsc.ac.uk/downloads/scholarar
  t/penlington-sustainability-report.pdf
• Slide 19 Penlington R, Steiner S. (2007)
  Student perceptions of sustainability and
  alignment with the requirements of UK-SPEC.
  International Conference on Engineering Education
  Research. December 3-7, 2007 Melbourne,
  Australia (ISBN number 978-0-9741252-7-X)
• Slide 19 Mitchell CA, Carew AL, Clift R. (2004)
  The Role of the Professional Engineer and
  Scientist in Sustainable Development. in
  Sustainable Development in Practice Case Studies
  for Engineers and Scientists, Azapagic A, Perdan
  S, Clift R (Eds) Wiley
• Slide 19 Engineers Against Poverty (2008) The
  Global Engineer, Incorporating global skills
  within UK higher education of engineers
  http//www.engineersagainstpoverty.org/_db/_docume
  nts/WEBGlobalEngineer_Linked_Aug_08_Update.pdf

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Introducing and embedding Sustainable Development
Any questions?
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What one thing.

• Please write below one thing that you have
  personally learnt today

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Action Points Introducing and embedding
Sustainable Development

• Please write below three action points you will
  take from today, with a planned start time

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