Understanding Curricular Approaches to Communication as a Global Competency: An Interdisciplinary Study of the Teaching and Learning of Communication

As society grows more global and interconnected, the challenges that must be addressed by the next generation of engineers are becoming more complex [1-2]. Engineers need deep technical expertise, of course, but they also need what have typically been called 21st-century skills, for example, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and communication. Technical knowledge and “soft” skills are complementary, and both are necessary if engineers are to help solve the most serious problems our societies face [3-4]. This call for engineering education to position itself so students can meet modern challenges was laid out by the leaders of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in their influential reports, The Engineer of 2020 [5-6]. There is now a need to reflect on how engineering education has positively changed in the decade since those reports, and to consider what still needs to be tackled.