Fostering Emotional Engineers: Revisiting Constructive Thinking in Engineering Education

For the past decade, engineering education efforts at the postsecondary level have sought to create a more holistic type of critical thinker (Felder & Brent, 2015; Grasso & Burkins, 2010). As part of this initiative, engineers are encouraged to develop skills associated with constructive thinking—a pedagogical concept rooted in the belief that knowledge is constructed through continual interaction with peers and the environment (Anderson, 2013; Driscoll, 2005; Shayer, 2003). However, despite the positive ramifications linked with this pedagogical shift, studies have demonstrated that the increased use of collaborative aspects associated with constructivist teaching practices may be negatively impacting female students (Rosser, 2009; Tonso, 1996; Wolfe & Powell, 2009a, 2009b). Taking a primarily philosophical approach, the contribution of emotions to constructive thinking is explored utilizing Thayer-Bacon’s (2000) conceptualization of the concept to argue that the pedagogical shift within engineering has not fully incorporated a holistic approach to learning. The results of recent studies in engineering education are analyzed to highlight the negative consequences associated with overlooking emotions as contributors to constructive thinking primarily for female students in the field (Jones et al., 2013; Tonso, 1996, 2006; Wolfe & Powell, 2006). To conclude, the value of emotions for the engineering discipline is underscored by using work by Jaggar (1992, 1998) to explore its historical association with female thought and its overall impact on the construction of knowledge

Sources and Expressions of power in global food coordination and rural sites: domination, counter domination and alternatives

Editorial Introductio

We just knock on doors

C&B talks to Pedro Arce, CEO of Veritas Bank. Veritas, a new bank, will work with community groups on development projects and serve the 70 percent Latino population of Lawrence, Massachusetts, in ways that might not be practical for large regional or national banks.Community development - Massachusetts ; Banks and banking - Massachusetts ; Hispanic Americans - Massachusetts ; Immigrants - Massachusetts

The Design, Implementation, and Assessment of a New Capstone Course Aimed at Science Education Majors

This paper rationalizes the selection of the concept of energy as the central theme of a new capstone course aimed at science education majors. It describes the goals of the course and the activities that preceded the course design and led to the selection of the topics, of the educational materials, and of the teaching methodologies. It presents a sequential description of the manner in which the conceptual knowledge of energy was to be developed. The specific experiments, interactive demonstrations and other educational materials utilized for the conceptual development of the concept of energy in context are described and referenced. The course objectives are described, as well as the instruments utilized to assess student learning. It also presents the activities utilized to assess the course, in addition to the modifications made to the course syllabus based on this assessment