Professors responding to
the new challenges on
engineering
profession: bringing new values into the classroom
Josep Lobera*
1
, Agustí Pérez-Foguet
2
, Cristina Escrigas
1
1
Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI)
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Edifici TG (S1), C/ Jordi Girona, 31, 08034 Barcelona – Spain
e-mail:
pep.lobera@upc.e
du
2
E.T.S de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de Barcelona
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Módulo C2, Campus Nord, c/ Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034 Barcelona – Spain
ABSTRACT
Education in values is seen as a continuous
process that begins at the childhood. It is
unquestionably influenced by the family and the
society. University should consolidate the
formation of the political, ethical and moral values acquired in the former educational levels, as
well as to form and to develop the professional values (Lourdes Zumalacárregui and Alonso,
2002).
Formation of values is not an addition
al content in the curriculum, but a
reality
that should be
considered in the whole work system and activi
ties at the university through all the dimensions
of the educational process. In the engineer education, values are and always have been
present. Yet these values not always have been
adapted to the reality of the society in which
engineers develop their profes
sional careers and lives.
The last decade has seen a remarkable change in the economic and social landscape of
society. Many societal trends and needs call fo
r engineers to broaden t
heir outlooks, have more
flexible career options, and work closely and e
ffectively with persons of quite different
backgrounds. Yet the education and general orientation of engineers have been directed inward
toward the profession, rather than outward toward
the rest of society and
the world (King, 2006),
and in some classrooms there are transmitted va
lues that were for the first or the second
industrial revolution.
The convergence of the Spanish te
rtiary education system into the
European Higher Education
Area (EHEA) represents an opportunity to introdu
ce new educational methodologies that could
facilitate the development of the knowledge, atti
tudes and procedures that are needed to the
new professional and personal contexts.
Some teachers at the Technical University of
Catalonia (UPC) are developing a project of
educational innovation in which they aim to inco
rporate the following issues transversally into
the technical subjects that they give nowadays:
values and ethics in engineering, participative
learning, transdisciplinarity, multiculturalism
and diversity, and human sustainable development.
This paper draws on this experience and it treats the opportunities and difficulties which
teachers face bringing new values into the classroom
