Author:

Keywords:

engineering education, communication skills

Abstract:

Although outrun years ago by the profound reorganizations of the post-Fordist economy, the idea of the engineer as a technically skilled loner continues to carry significant weight in the popular imagination. This fixed belief hinders teachers of communication skills in motivating engineering students for their courses, while motivation is known to be key in triggering and facilitating lasting learning outcomes. Evidence suggests that teachers of communication are not considered credible when making the case themselves and that workplace testimonials are of crucial importance in convincing engineering students of the importance of communication skills (Melin Emilsson, Lilje: 2008). The course module I will present in this paper takes its cue from this evidence and has small teams of first-year engineering students research whether, and if so, which communication skills are important for professional engineers on the basis of a custom-made online questionnaire, which was completed by 577 professional engineers over a 3 year time span. Students were asked to write out their research methodology and findings in a succinct, academically formatted paper. From the analysis of the questionnaire results, the students learned that the respondents spend more than half of their working hours actively communicating, while a majority indicates to be struggling with aspects of written and oral communication. Using research data from a pre- and post-test, a student questionnaire and a comparative analysis of students’ formal writing preceding and following the course module, I will analyze whether this approach was successful in improving students’ writing skills, research skills and attitudes towards communication as part of the engineering curriculum. Also, I will evaluate the potential of the questionnaire results in playing a role in the educational control cycle, as through the questionnaire, the workplace is allotted a systematic part in processes of curricular (re)design.