Happy New Year 2023! We start the year with an incredible discussion on the frontier of engineering education - creating empathic engineers with Nicki Sochacka
What are the challenges and opportunities in educating the next generation of empathic engineers? Can it be taught, and if so, how?
We discussed this with Dr Nicola Sochacka, previously of the University of Georgia, who has spent the last decade researching this topic. She believes that engineers should not only understand the end users of engineering designs but should also develop an affinity with those they interact with. She presents a model of empathy in engineering as a teachable and learnable skill, a practice orientation, and a professional way of being.
Join Dr Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) and Dr Natalie Wint (Swansea University) for this informative discussion.
Thanks to Nicki for taking the time out from a busy time of travelling
Timestamps:
0.00 Abstract
0.45 Podcast intro
1.18 What we will talk about
1.36 Experiences of teaching empathy from Neil and Natalie
2.48 Nicki’s background
5.20 University of Georgia
7.08 What we mean by empathy skills and why they are important for engineers?
10.48 A model of empathy in engineering: skills, being and orientation
13.31 An example of using the model in the classroom
15.28 The ‘being’ aspect of the model
17.34 Can empathy be taught?
19.17 How to operationalize the theory: research into practice
21.35 Mode switching
25.00 The Empathy Modules Workbook and assessment ideas
27.30 Overcoming challenges
31.05 Teaching neurodiverse students
32.11 What’s next for Nicki: dissemination and propagation of research
35.07 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil.
Resources:
Model:
https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20159
Empathy Modules Workbook:
https://eeti.uga.edu/project/the-empathy-project-an-interdisciplinary-research-effort-to-develop-a-transferable-theory-of-empathy-in-engineering/
google study:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html
The paper mentioned in relation to dissemination and propagation:
DOI:10.1080/00091383.2017.1357098
Become a member of the European Society for Engineering Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering educators: www.sefi.be
Music: Sunrise by ComaStudio https://pixabay.com/users/comastudio-26079283/
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