Beyond Service Learning: Towards an Understanding of Engineering Student Development of Social Responsibility

More than ever, engineering students must be prepared for social responsibility. The 20th-century saw unprecedented social and technical advancement, leading to population growth and depleting natural resources. As a result, engineering educators have been called upon to prepare students for these professional social responsibilities. However, social responsibility is more discretionary and interpretive than legal and ethical responsibilities, and educators lack clarity on what exactly social responsibility entails and how to design effective learning experiences for it. This thesis explores the relationship between student participation in various engineering learning experiences and social responsibility. Results of this study show that fourth- year students were likely to have higher social responsibility measures than first-year students, especially in a professional capacity. Participation in certain learning experiences corresponded to increased social responsibility measures, while others did not. Lastly, the results show that social responsibility measures could be correlated with three professional graduate attributes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MSc)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Jatana, Lauren Shawna

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Eggermont, Marjan J.
• Brennan, Robert William

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Li, Simon
• Nygren, Anders

• social responsibility
• engineering education
• Ethics
• professionalism
• Education
• Engineering

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/33160

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/108820