Creating environmentally conscious engineering professionals through attitudinal instruction: A mixed methods study

Environmental responsibilities have evolved beyond controlling the emissions and wastes of industrial production to now incorporating logistics, products and processes. Corporations have become environmentally conscious to satisfy corporate responsibilities and to ensure sustainable development, increasing the demand for environmental engineering professionals. Engineering education should not be restricted to satisfying the demands of employers, industry and the marketplace or be isolated within disciplines. This study examined the instructional strategies implemented by a professor in his environmental sustainability engineering course to make his students critical thinkers, who can create sustainable products, programs and solutions. This mixed methods single case study adopted a positive deviance approach to identify this best practices case where the professor applied attitudinal learning principles in a non-intrusive way, that is without trying to change attitudes directly and forcefully. This allowed students to critically examine presented content, connect emotionally to issues they valued, take ownership of their learning, and make decisions and take responsibility for their actions, according to this study. Since sustainability projects are multi-disciplinary in the real world, ill-structured problem solving incorporated in semester-long team projects showed that students learned to work in diverse teams and understood team dynamics. These skills are expected to be transferred into students' future engineering professional careers where they could demonstrate broader management, multidisciplinary, and communication skills, in addition to social, economic and environmental responsibilities. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Environmental responsibilities have expanded beyond controlling industrial emissions and waste, now including logistics, products, and processes. Companies are increasingly environmentally conscious, leading to a demand for environmental engineering professionals. Engineering education should focus on cultivating critical thinkers who can create sustainable solutions, while addressing interdisciplinary challenges in sustainability projects.