Article ID: CBB032969229

Literature for Specific Purposes: A Literary Approach to Teaching Ethics in Science and Technology (2018)

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Education in science and technology faces a constellation of problems regarding how students master the nontechnical skills that are essential for the successful execution of their professional duties. In particular, educators struggle to provide sound training in ethics, and in this essay I focus specifically on engineering education. I here propose a schema with which to teach ethics by marrying humanities methods with engineering concerns, primarily through the targeted selection of literary texts, direction of subsequent discussion, and construction of assignments to meet discipline-specific learning outcomes. As a scholar trained in literary criticism but who works at a technical university, I draw on my unique background to bridge what are often viewed as radically disparate areas of study. What I discuss in this essay is part of a larger project that takes an interdisciplinary approach to teaching science and technology that I call "literature for specific purposes." This phrase consciously echoes the name of the "language for specific purposes" approach, which teaches language within the context of a scientific or professional discipline. By uniting the focused approach of language for specific purposes with the opportunity for discussion afforded by literary interpretation, the literature for specific purposes approach provides a beneficial framework for the teaching of many discipline-specific concerns, and I discuss this by using ethics as an example.

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Authors & Contributors
Rider Foley
Stephen Secules
Héctor Gustavo Giuliano
Eva Silfver
Fernando Gabriel Nicchi
Walter Mario Weyerstall
Concepts
Education, engineering
Teaching; pedagogy
Science and literature
Literary analysis
Engineering
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
Places
United States
Sweden
Australia
Great Britain
Institutions
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)
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