Open Access“Nothing Is Set in Stone”: Incorporating Futurology into College Courses
Author(s) -
Skylar Davidson
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of effective teaching in higher education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2578-7608
DOI - 10.36021/jethe.v2i1.12
Subject(s) - curriculum , set (abstract data type) , mathematics education , process (computing) , nothing , critical thinking , active learning (machine learning) , pedagogy , computer science , engineering ethics , psychology , engineering , epistemology , artificial intelligence , programming language , operating system , philosophy
“Futurology” is the process of forecasting or designing the future, whether that be the near future or far future. College courses rarely explicitly include futurology, even though the content of many courses has implications for the future. To build knowledge on how future-oriented content can be incorporated into educational curriculum, I studied a college course in which students used futurology activities as part of an active learning setup. My study suggests that future-oriented content is appealing to students and helps students develop a sense of control over the future. In order to better introduce students to futurology, instructors must attend carefully to students' unfamiliarity with structured future-oriented thinking, as well as to fatalistic attitudes about the future.