�ݺ�ߣ

Steiner 1

All technology came from someone using a form of engineering at one time or

another. In that sense, engineering is the foundation of innovation in our modern world.

Wanting to play a role in such an influential career I chose to make electrical engineering

my course of study. Becoming an electrical engineer(as well as any engineer) is full of

hardwork and a lot of preparation. You deal with such advanced concepts like robotics,

circuitry, lasers etc. and what fascinates me the most is how exactly one is taught to be an

engineer.

First of all, genres are not just forms. “[Genres] are frames for social action,

locations within which meaning is constructed”. Genres are responses to reoccurring

situations that people encounter. “Genre develop, then, because they respond

appropriately to situations that writers encounter repeatedly”.The articles that I found

through the UCF library and Google, all discuss methods of education in engineering to

benefit those in that course of study like me. I will be analyzing these three articles from

the field, looking specifically at the genre setting, subject, participants, features, and

patterns.

Subject

Finding these articles wasparticularly hard because of how complex engineering

is. Trying to narrow down the subject among articles is nearly impossible due to how

broad the field really is. Engineering is a big industry, and one of the key things for its

success is the education put towards rising engineers. The unfortunate truth is that

“students become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly on test, get discouraged about

the courses, the curriculum, and themselves, and in some cases change to other curricula

Steiner 2

or drop out of school” (Felder and Silverman 1). Engineering is one of the most difficult

degrees to obtain due to its intensive courses, so picking the right education methods is

imperative in order to prevent a situation included in the previous sentence. The main

subject of these articles is that after one receives education in engineering, they should be

“proficient in the tools of their trade” (Bernhard 1). Through these articles, authors

propose methods of teaching for engineers as well as state the uses of new technologies

into the curriculum.

The article, “Challenges and Strategies for Electrical Engineering Education” is

basically what the title says. It is an outline of specific strategies and challenges for those

in the engineering profession, while explaining specific learning styles. Even though the

article suggests it is only for electrical engineers, its content reflects the whole

engineering profession entirely. In “Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering

Education”, Felder describes the different learning and teaching styles associated with the

education, and differentiates their characteristics. These different learning and teaching

styles are to show how engineers learn and the methods for teaching engineering. The

article, “Infusion of Emerging Technologies and New Teaching Methods into The

Mechanical Engineering Curriculum at The City College of New York”, shows how new

technologies are being used for education in the curriculum of mechanical engineering.

The author of this article demonstrates the great role that new technology is providing in

the education of mechanical engineering.

Setting

These publications came from the City College of New York, the University of

New Hampshire, and North Carolina State University. Since of all these articles had

Steiner 3

originated from universities, they all are concerning the same basic principles. Finding

them through Google and the UCF library, there were also many relating articles on those

sites about innovations, other teaching methods, and general facts about engineering.

Although from different locations, each article mainly focuses on how up and coming

engineers should be educated and the specific methods to do so. The differences with

these articles are the times in which they were published. These are articles range from

the late 1980’s, to the late 1990’s, as well as the year 2011. Being spread out as far as

decades creates differences amongst these methods, especially for engineering. The world

of technology is ever growing, and new technology introduced to the field can greatly

change the aspects of the field itself. In terms of location the setting of each of these

articles are similar in the fact that they are about universities in the United States, but

their dates are completely different, and provide different information. This is not

necessarily a bad thing, however, as it allows for a different points of view on

engineering education and allows us to see what exactly has changed over the time

period.

Participants

The writers of these articles are all professors with prior experience in teaching.

They have all been there to observe what learning styles and methods are the most

beneficial to that of their students. One of these authors, Linda K. Silverman, is a

psychologist who thoroughly analyzed the learning styles of engineering students through

her article “Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education”. As a psychologist

her analysis includes the different forms in which engineering students learn, which she

Steiner 4

was able to observe through prior experience. Although she is not an engineering

professor, she provided learning techniques through her experience in psychology.

The other authors are both professors in engineering with Jennifer Bernhard, a professor

in electrical engineering and computer science, and Feridun Delale, a professor in

mechanical engineering. As the same for all engineering professors, both Bernhard and

Delale have experience in engineering and know the ways in order to become a

successful engineer. Their experience allows for a good representation of engineering

teaching techniques and the use of new technologies, in order to educate their students. In

Bernhard’s article she recalls a past experience where engineering students described the

way they learned, and she took that melded it into her way of teaching. Understanding

how they learn and the strategies for their success could only be understood by one who

is knowledgeable and has past experience in the subject.

Any teacher can teach out of a book , but for students to learn what is needed for

their profession, they need a professor like these two who have been through the same

and fully understand their field. Their articles are written for professors in the education

of engineering as well as the students, in order for them to gain insight on education in

that particular field. The readers of this genre should be familiar with the field of

engineering in order to fully grasp the concepts discussed.

Features

These articles, basically all write in the same format. These authors use a

traditional essay format, including an intro, body, and conclusion. Each author uses their

professional experience for evidence to support their findings. Within each introduction,

the author clearly addresses the main subjects of each body paragraph. Each body

Steiner 5

paragraph includes new ways of teaching and expresses different learning styles, while

the conclusion summarizes the use of all of the learning styles and tries to express a basic

understanding of the best teaching method for engineering. They give an understanding

of exactly who engineers are and how they think as well as how they learn.

In Bernhard’s article, she presents her introduction with her viewpoint on what

engineering education is and what should result from it. She expresses her teaching

methods and the ways she engages her students. In her body paragraphs she lays out what

kind of people engineers are and then explains the differences in teaching according to

class year. Delale introduces with the importance on the curriculum of engineering,

stating that it is “engaged in a continuing effort to review and upgrade its curriculum”

(Delale 2). After the introduction, Delale addresses the role of new technologies in

engineering education and in what subjects those technologies influence. One of the

things that stands out in Delale’s article is how they use pictures to demonstrate the uses

of new technology in the education environment, but the reason for this is that the new

technology wouldn’t have been in use in the time period of the other articles. Within

Silverman and Felder’s article, they outline different learning styles for students and

describe specific ways in which those students learn in the profession.They also usevisual

examples to explain and define the different learning style, in order to make the

information easier to understand for the reader, while the other article sticks to the

traditional essay format. At the end of each article, the authors added in a list of

references or works cited section. Each article clearly defines who wrote it and where it

Steiner 6

came from, as to convey a sense of acknowledgement for their impacts on education in

engineering.

Patterns

The genre features of these articles show that these research journals are intended

for all engineering professors and students, to show what the profession is and what they

will need to do in order to become successful as an engineer. When discussing what

engineers are,the authors define them as abstract thinkers who need different means of

education. The articles are all written in an informative tone when presenting the

information and include past experience to support their ideas. They all come to the

general consensus that engineering education requires different methods of teaching, and

the techniques listed should be used by an instructor to “meet the needs of most or all of

the students in any class” (Silverman and Felder 3). This reveals that they want their

students motivated about the education, and want to include all the resources(technology)

in the teaching.

Although these articles pertain to the same topic, they do present their information

in different ways. The articles by Bernhard and Felder/Silverman both explain styles of

learning and thinking with engineering students, while Delale’s article discusses more

about the applications of new technology for education. Most of the terminology in the

articles is easy to understand since they do not directly discuss the complex aspects of the

field, and if it isn’t the authors try to clearly identify what it means. BothBernhard and

Felder/Silverman try to clearly define their groupings for thought and learning styles for

the reader in order to see the differences among them. Through these clear definitions, the

Steiner 7

reader can easily identify whether or they are an auditory learner or whether they prefer

real-life experience in order to learn.

These articles make it evident that engineering is different from any other

profession, and stress the importance of their education since other means of education

would not be beneficial. Engineers require complex education due to the importance of

the high level of math and sciences required by the profession. Simply this is the truth,

and it is further supported by the authors’ ideas on learning styles, ways of thinking, and

the uses of new technology used in the education of engineering. In order to make this

possible an author would have had to have prior real-life working as an engineer or

someone who is knowledgeable in the field of teaching it. The authors want the readers to

understand these things, but not be turned away from the profession because of its

complexity. They simply want the reader to understand what it takes to become an

engineer and what that education will mean for them.

�ݺ�ߣ

Enc1102 paper 1

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Enc1102 paper 1 (20)

Enc1102 paper 1