The Use of Narrative in Undergraduate Engineering Education

Many theories of engineering education identify methods to engage students and enhance learning that leverage mechanisms by which learning occurs. Most commonly, techniques such as problem-based learning, discovery learning, scaffolding, and hands-on or active learning have been promoted to enhance learning of engineering concepts and design methods. But less systematically studied are approaches that specifically address student motivation (and its assessment). One especially overlooked modality in this regard, despite (and probably also because of) its pervasive presence in instructional discourse, is the use of narrative. In this paper, we discuss the use of narrative in undergraduate engineering education. In particular, we explore the theory and background of narrative-based instructional methods and review the use of narrative in several undergraduate engineering courses at Stony Brook University. We will discuss models for the various uses of narrative, and examine the results of the use of disaster literature and science fiction (both reading and writing) to enhance the learning of engineering ethics, value sensitive design, and risk assessment. We will also discuss further roles for the concepts of narrative pedagogy (NP) in engineering (for example, having students tell stories of their own relationship with technology, or productively repurpose features of existing narratives) and, in a broader sense, explore the potential for enhancing teaching and learning in engineering and the humanities through seeing engineering designs as narratives themselves.