Teaching the Concepts of Calling and Vocation in an Introduction to Engineering Course

About Teaching the Concepts of Calling and Vocation in an Introduction to Engineering Course

Abstract

The mission statement of the Engineering Department at Geneva College calls for “developing engineering professionals who will see their careers as a calling from God in which they may glorify him and love their neighbors....” This is also emphasized in the first of the eight departmental objectives. The Introduction to Engineering course taken by all incoming freshmen provides a place to introduce and emphasize this important concept. Over the ten years that this course has been in place, various resources have been used to accomplish this goal, ranging from brief handouts and worksheets written by Geneva faculty to a 150 page textbook. This has also resulted in a wide range in emphasis on the material, both in the number of lectures directly related to the topic, and in the relative emphasis on vocation and calling during exams. This paper is a reflection on student response to these various approaches and changes that have been implemented over the past two years. Surveys of students from the four most recent offerings of the course showed no apparent effect on student commitment to these objectives or the perceived impacts of the course. Assessment of student answers to final exam questions revealed that student success in articulating “the impact of the Christian faith on engineering practice in the light of a biblical view of calling” increased from 51% to 82% between fall 2004 and fall 2005.