Prospective engineers and children's literature — An unusual approach to teach key competencies: An interdisciplinary module

摘要

It is a commonly held perception that in general, engineers frequently suffer from a lack of soft skills. This becomes already quite obvious when prospective engineers are confronted with the task to communicate with their peers or while presenting their achievements in class. Insights from humanistic sciences are valuable to overcome such deficits at university level. Analysing specific texts, talking and exchanging opinions on the content with peers from inside and outside their subject area could enhance engineers' ability to efficiently communicate, for example. Fairy tales, as creative and cultural relevant texts with deep symbolic values, provide a rich ground to gain these capabilities. Specific skills, which could be improved by discussing fairy tales are, for example, realizing and decoding hidden meanings, associations and symbols. Also, creative thinking and the awareness of the importance of social and historical influences on content and understanding can be developed. Furthermore, differences in-between academic disciplines can be experienced by working in interdisciplinary, and often intercultural, teams. This approach is still in the process of field testing at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, now in the second run, where the interdisciplinary module Studium Generale offers space for soft skill training with a difference. So far, the results of this unusual approach to teach key competencies are promising for further projects. Nevertheless, an obstacle, this module still has to overcome, is the students', and especially prospective engineers' unwillingness to participate in such an “out-of-the-box”-setting without any reservations.