TEACHING ETHICS AND THE GOVERNANCE OF THE
PROFESSION:
Ahead or Behind Professional Practise Realities?
Monique Frize, P. Eng.,O.C.
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Nortel/NSERC Women in Engineering
Chair Holder
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B., E3B 6H7
ABSTRACT
The working environment for engineers has changed over the last five years and the professional practice course should reflect these changes if we are to provide the students with adequate tools to have a successful career. The proposal herewith suggest ways of doing this, not only through the profession course but also through other regular technical core courses.
INTRODUCTION
Before 1991, the great majority of engineering students were finding work well ahead of their graduation day. Most of the hiring was done by large firms recruiting on the campus in late winter or early spring. The type of employment was normally restricted to a specific function or department, such as: research and development (for Master's degrees), or other areas for undergraduate degrees, such as manufacturing, or production, sales, etc.. These large companies would focus very much on the 'technical competence' of the candidates. There was not much emphasis on "people skills" or "communication skills" at the time. Engineering Schools have continued, since the 1960's, to produce engineers who are highly technically-trained, but little attention was paid to the "softer skills". Some argue that the complementary studies (courses in the humanities) provide the other skills. However, frequently we see students selecting these courses, not exactly for what they can learn, but based on another interest: finding the courses which, with the least amount of work, can boost their Grade Point Average by the 'historically' high marks that can be obtained in those courses. Some of these courses may help the students in their writing abilities, and they may even learn the rudiments of another language. But unless much care is taken in the selection of these options, the students may find little direct help in developing their interpersonal and communication skills.
New Professional Practise Realities
The employment market for engineers has changed dramatically in the past five years (Frize & McLean 1994). Large firms have restructured and many have created smaller 'divisions' which operate similarly to small firms. Layoffs have not, in general, been rehired, as these firms prefer to subcontract some of the work which is not of uniform demand, avoiding the hiring of permanent staff, with all the overhead that this entails. At the same time, much of the new hiring occurs in smaller firms. So 'new engineers' should have, in addition to highly developed technical skills, many new attributes that will help them to fit better in this new working environment. For example, job functions in a small firm (or in a small unit of a larger firm) are more diffuse and engineers will deal, amongst others, with clients, suppliers, and government officials regulating the codes and standards. In addition to the type of firm hiring the graduates, many new aspects of the workplace have changed: first, there are more women entering this non-traditional field and understanding their needs and the important contributions they can bring to the firm will ensure that their participation is successful, not only for the women, but also for the firm (Frize 1993). There is also an increasing number of men and women of many different ethnic origins entering into engineering. The engineering work also brings engineers to many parts of the globe. This points to the need for knowledge and sensitivity to other cultures and languages and must change substantially the approach to our work. When we work in other countries, we must not simply impose our western style of project management and development, but rather integrate what is best about the local way of doing things with some of our western strategies, allowing the two to blend in harmony while respecting the local needs and experience. (Taylor et al. 1994).
The 'old curriculum'
Although a survey of the current curriculum has not been done for this paper, it is possible that many engineering schools are looking at the match between what is being taught and what is needed by the students to show a better fit with their degree and skills and the new workplace of today. Developing this better fit does not necessarily mean to add several new courses to what we know is an already too heavy curriculum. Having given some thought to these new challenges, I began to see how we could provide many of these skills within the existing curriculum, provided we changed some of the approaches to our teaching. One of the most obvious course to start with is the profession course. But other opportunities exist through other regular engineering courses and this will be discussed at the end.
The 'old' Content of the Engineering Profession Course:
When I began to teach the governance of the profession and the Code of Ethics (EE4032) at the University of New Brunswick, in the winter term of 1990, I taught the course in the same manner in which it had been done for many years. The main emphasis was on the clients and the public. The original list of speakers contained one or two women and the other eight or ten were men. Since I, as instructor, would represent a female role model in my class for at least a dozen lectures, I did not change the original list of speakers, since I did not know how they had (and would) perform in my class, and they obviously had been doing this for years. I would then be exposed to the content of each lecture, which would provide an overview of the material covered in the past. When I sent a letter of invitation (and had called people to ascertain their participation and availability), I asked each guest to use gender-inclusive language for the lecture. As the course unfolded, I noticed that many of the guest speakers on the list used exclusively the male gender to refer to engineers and professionals, and talked about 'girls' whenever they referred to women in the class. But you never heard them use the term 'boys' for the men in the class. But overall, there were few women in their world of engineering. Moreover, the course did not provide much opportunity to develop the students' communication and interpersonal skills.
One of the factors that really distressed me when I started the course was the fact that some of the women in my class used male language exclusively, even when referring to their own experiences. This showed me how engineering students (even women) have been conditioned to see engineering and engineers in male terms. This is a systemic problem and it will only disappear by providing a positive example in the classroom.
During that first year, I took note of the changes to be made and they are described in the section below: new proposed approach. I also provided a new content: a discussion on gender issues, addressing why the enrolment of women in engineering was still so low (approximately 13 percent) compared to Faculties of Law, Medicine and Business which had reached a gender balance. I also discussed workplace issues such as employment equity and sexual harassment and added tips for a successful career. I also offered to teach this topic in the other two courses (in mechanical and in civil engineering). My offer was accepted by both. These topics were covered in two 50-minute classes.
The main topics covered by the 'old' course were:
The bank of case studies was shared between the three courses. Many of them used male language and male engineers as examples. However, some of them had been revised the year before I first took on this course and I provided new versions for several of them in my initial contribution to the bank. I used alternatively female and male engineers to illustrate ethical problems.
What New Skills should be taught?
A general employability skills profile, as published by the Conference Board of Canada (1992) refers to the importance of communication skills, the ability to think and learn, having a positive attitude and behaviour (interpersonal or people skills), being a responsible person with an ability to set goals, plan and manage time, money and other resources to achieve goals, being accountable for their actions, and adaptability to perpetual change, to a diversity of people, to respect individual differences, creativity and the ability to work with others (teamwork). Today's employers of engineers often cite that, in addition to highly-technically-trained people, they also want all the attributes stated above (Frize & McLean 1994). This is a tall order, when one considers how the curriculum in engineering is focussed primarily on the technical skills.
New Proposed Approach to Teaching the Profession Course
Although the content may vary slightly between various instructors across the country, there may be some advantage to developing a 'guideline' to ensure that a number of issues are covered that would be more in tune with today's workplace. This new approach tackles both content and teaching style and the main example used to illustrate this is the Engineering Profession course. By changing a small portion of the content, the guests invited to do a class, some of the assignments, and by increasing the participation of the students in the classroom, the results can develop the verbal and written communication skills of the students, their interpersonal skills, the importance of understanding other cultures, and inform them on how to develop their entrepreneurship skills.
The New Course Content:
Half of the new guests were professional women, several of them engineers. The language used by all guests was gender-inclusive and their examples described both women and men engineers. The major part of the content described for the 'old course' was preserved, but a little less time was spent on each topic. Additions to the course were:
* Societal Impact: a history professor, specialising in the social impact of technology, was invited to discuss these issues with the students; this was followed by the writing of an essay, where the students were asked to invent an engineering job that they have enjoyed for about five years and to discuss how their work impacts society both in a positive and a negative manner. Most students get the point and do a very interesting paper, although it is obvious that they struggle more with finding the negative aspects than the positive ones, and they often conclude in this way: "Although there are some negative impacts of my work on society, the positive impacts far outweigh the negative ones". That is a normal reaction, since they chose to be engineers, and thus to be creators of new technologies. But they do admit, frequently, that the essay has forced them to think about these things and that they would not have given this any thought without this exercise.
* Occupational Health Safety (OHS): the CEAB added this requirement several years ago and it seemed appropriate to fit this into the Profession Course. A lawyer was invited to describe the OHS Law in New Brunswick; she discussed the concept of 'Due Diligence', and provided real world examples of accidents and of the court decisions on these. She recommended ways to prevent accidents and how to deal with them when they occur. The topic of 'Product Safety' has also been added to meet the CEAB request; the specialist invited does an excellent task at explaining how the WHMIS system works; he also provides lively examples of accidents and discusses prevention measures.
* Environmental Concerns: the specialist is a geological engineer who discussed how the environment comes into the equation of any major (and even smaller) engineering project. She encouraged the students to respect the public, to treat people who are not engineers with respect and to learn how to address them in terms which they will understand, instead of the usual professional jargon that we engineers are so prone to use in conversations amongst each other, but also when we speak to non-engineers.
* Entrepreneurship: the guest described the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, and the various business opportunities existing in this global market environment. The guest is the holder of the Technology Management and Entrepreneurship Chair at UNB.
* Engineering Workplace and Gender Issues: I provide these two lectures; they included the current skills desired by employers; a description of current obstacles for women in the profession and solutions to achieving gender balance; the concept of employment equity was discussed; as well as what sexual harassment (and other forms) is and how to eradicate its presence both at the University and in the workplace. Again, every year, this is done in all three Profession Courses at UNB. The topic can be covered in two classes (50 minutes each) and two of the ten case studies discuss these issues: one on harassment and the other on discrimination.
Guest Speakers
I changed most of the original guests, as I became familiar with the content of the course and found new speakers, approximately half female and half male engineers. All used gender-inclusive language (at least most of the time). So the new role models in this class showed my students that women and men were competent engineers and they each shared interesting experiences with the class. This alone (I am sure) has had a major impact on the attitude of the students. The students are also asked to use gender-inclusive language in the classroom, in their essay, and in their case study analyses; the majority of them did, even on the exam.
Increasing Student Participation and Skills
The case studies assigned during the course require a personal analysis, with justification drawn from the Code of Ethics and the Engineering Profession Act, the textbook, and other relevant sources. Each case must be analysed in approximately two pages . These analyses must be submitted at the end of the class where they are scheduled to be discussed. Late submissions were not be accepted nor graded. Care has to be taken that written submissions were legible and clear, and would use gender-inclusive language. The case studies count for a quarter of the final grade.
* Presentation in Class: Students are selected at random to present a discussion of a case study. The names of the presenters are announced at the beginning of the class where the case is presented. Class presentation of a case study counts for 10% of final mark. Students seemed to be quite terrified when their name was called, but did a good job, on the whole, and admitted having lost some fear for 'public speaking' once they realised that it went well and was not so difficult. The class discussion was animated and that provided them with more experience in verbal expression.
For the essay, a third of the marks judge the students' writing abilities, while the remaining two thirds is divided between the positive and negative impact of engineering works on society. The students could make any realistic assumptions to write the essay. It was expected to be a minimum of two pages, 1000 words maximum. The essay counts for 15 % of final mark. Marking this essay is always a genuine pleasure for me, as I get to know the students' dreams of their future job, what they see themselves doing in five years' time, and how they see the impact of their work changing how people live, how people work. Most students admit never having given this any thought prior to this assignment and become quite reflective on this issue once they have written their essay.
* Final Examination: The final examination is a closed-book exam which counts towards 50% of the final mark. A pass mark is required in both the final exam and in the case study analyses to pass the course. Starting this year, I have allowed a copy of the Act and Code of Ethics to be brought in to the exam.
Discussion of the Results
The results have been very positive. The students discuss openly and without much suppressed anger many of the delicate issues surrounding gender inequalities in the workplace. Their verbal (and writing) skills seem to improve greatly during the twelve weeks that the courses lasts. Their greater understanding of the new workplace environment seems to be decreasing the fears and anxieties they may have had about it. Being more prepared, they may be able to handle the stesses and unexpected more wisely, more calmly. This is true for both the women and the men. Many of the myths the students hold at the beginning of the course are destroyed and are replaced by facts and real-life examples. The role models who visit the class provide again a real-life reinforcement through their own messages of the facts and concepts discussed in the classroom.
Suggestions for Changing Other "More Technical' Courses
This illustration will use the second year course on "Electric Circuit Theory" (EE 2773). The course is highly technical and consisted, to date, of three hours of traditional lectures, and of a tutorial, in each of the twelve weeks of term. There were five laboratory experiments. The changes that I will bring to this course next year are as follows: although the material will still be transmitted by several traditional classes, there will be more participation by students; the technique of inkshedding will be used to examine what the students know about the subject (ref). The tutorial periods will be used to get students divided into teams to work at various problems and some of the teams will be asked to share their solution. Finally, one of the laboratory experiments will be replaced by a project (lasting for the entire term) where the students will select an electrically-based invention, that is, one that uses a basic RLC circuit, (such as those found many decades ago). They will be asked to describe the theory behind how the invention works, talk about the inventor and discuss how the invention had an impact on people's lives then. They will also be asked to discuss what impact (if any) the invention has today and they must write the entire project as if it is intended for an audience of grade 8 or 9 students (in junior high school). This exercise will develop their team building, verbal and written skills. The project will also prepare them for the essay they will be doing in the Profession course, on Engineering and Society. They will learn to speak to lay persons in a respectful manner. Altogether, after these experiences, they should indeed be much better prepared for the new engineering job market and will be an asset to the firms who hire them.
Conclusion
The model described here is an attempt at providing students in engineering with a wide range of skills that complement well their technical abilities and meet the new demands of the employers. This proposal is far from being comprehensive and many other techniques can be added to the ones described in this paper. (I am sure many exist already and they hopefully will be shared at this conference now and in the future.) It is not necessary to add more courses to the already demanding workload of this degree, but simply to change the way in which we teach the courses that already exist. The examples used here illustrate how this can be done by a slight change in the content, using a delivery style that models an inclusive language that makes everyone in the class feel that they belong, and by inviting women (and men) role models to complement our instruction with real-life and relevant examples taken from professionals who work nearby. More imagination in using techniques like WAC (writing across the curriculum) in our classes will enhance the communication skills of the students as they learn their technical concepts. Then Canada can continue to boast that we produce the very best engineers.