Strategies For Developing Reflexive Habits In Students

It is widely accepted that engineering graduates should not only be technically competent but they should also be skilled in communication and teamwork, have social and global awareness, be self-directed and have an expectation of life-long learning. However it is much less clear how these "soft skills" are best developed in undergraduate engineers in the context of their studies. We have worked with over 350 students from freshman to seniors to develop a reflexive approach to their work. This has been done in the context of project-based, design courses, involving both individual and group work in the disciplines of mechanical and chemical engineering. We conclude that student attitudes clearly evidenced the need for engineering staff to model reflective practice and place regular emphasis on its value as a professional learning tool. Exercises in reflective thinking are most effective if integrated into other more ‘traditional’ engineering tasks rather than being set as ‘stand alone’ tasks. We argue that the best way to make expert knowledge accessible to non-experts is through getting the experts to reflect on their successes and failures.