Preparing Civil Engineers for International Collaboration in Construction Management

Soibelman, Lúcio; Sacks, Rafael; Akinci, Burcu; Dikmen, İrem; Birgönül, M. Talat; Eybpoosh, Matineh

doi:10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000044

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…These papers address the topic of culture, with the discussion focusing on educational projects in which participants were tasked to collaborate with people from other countries either directly (Arzberger et al, 2010;Jesiek, Haller, & Thompson, 2014;Mehalik, Lovell, & Shuman, 2008;Meunier, Dutto, Guillet, & Michau, 2007) or in geographically distributed virtual teams (Davies, Zaugg, & Tateishi, 2014;Gonzalez, Guerra-Zubiaga, Orta, & Contero, 2008;May, Wold, & Moore, 2015;McNair, Paretti, & Kakar, 2008;Zaugg & Davies, 2013). These authors, together with Downey et al (2006), LaFave et al (2015, Friesen and Ingram (2013), Hazelton, Malone, andGardner (2009), andSoibelman et al (2011), focus on the ability of graduates or professional engineers to work with others who have been raised or educated in "foreign" cultures (Swearengen, Barnes, Coe, Reinhardt, & Subramanian, 2002), countries, or language backgrounds.…”

Section: Close Readingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Which “culture”? A critical analysis of intercultural communication in engineering education

Handford

Maele

Matouš

et al. 2019

J of Engineering Edu

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Background It is increasingly acknowledged that technical expertise is not sufficient for engineers today, given the complex intercultural global contexts in which they are required to work. This article, therefore, examines how the concept of culture is typically operationalized in engineering education and discusses possible reasons for this approach. Purpose/Hypothesis The specific research question explored here is “How is culture conceptualized in engineering education?” Design/Method To examine this previously unasked question, a mixed‐methods methodology was developed, one that uses both quantitative and qualitative tools. More specifically, a corpus‐assisted discourse analysis of relevant engineering education articles published in leading academic journals between 2000 and 2015 was combined with a close reading of each and a critical discussion of two representative articles. Results Our findings reveal that, first, intercultural communication has not received the attention it deserves, given the multidisciplinary, diverse, global nature of the engineering profession. Furthermore, when intercultural concerns are discussed, the predominant approach is essentialist, meaning that culture is regarded as given (rather than constructed), framed in terms of differences between nations and potentially offering a causal explanation for individual behavior. This approach has been criticized for reinforcing stereotypical thinking and offering simplistic answers to complex problems. Conclusions We conclude by exploring reasons for the relatively wide‐spread acceptance of the “culture‐as‐given” approach in engineering education, then by urging educators to adopt a “small culture” approach for constructing culture in engineering, and finally by suggesting alternative ways for developing intercultural communicative competence.

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Section: Close Readingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Which “culture”? A critical analysis of intercultural communication in engineering education

Handford

Maele

Matouš

et al. 2019

J of Engineering Edu

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“…Barry et al (2012) describe the development of the capstone design course in Purdue University, which has been team taught since the early 1960s. There are some recent examples, such as Bhandari et al (2011), Peterson et al (2011), Soibelman et al (2011), Wolcott et al (2011), Korkmaz (2012 and Stanford et al (2013). Their implementation varies considerably with different objects of design (e.g.…”

Section: Collaborative Learning In Design Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual collaborative learning for building design

Soetanto¹,

Childs²,

Poh³

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Management,

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A building design project that requires civil engineering students in the UK and architectural students in Canada to collaborate virtually has been implemented at universities in the two countries. The aims were to obtain a greater understanding of the process, strategies and expected outcomes for a more effective implementation of problem-based learning to hone communication and teamwork skills. Data were obtained from a series of interviews with 23 students from seven groups, assessment results of 249 participating and non-participating students, and student evaluation. The findings suggest that the professional ethos of the groups and the consequent building of trust is the greatest factor in supporting successful collaborations. This has been found to be able to overcome many barriers related to technology and differences of culture, language, time zone and tasks. However, the activity did not seem to have any impact on student performance, but has improved the project management skills of participating students. The activity has also contributed positively to increasing student satisfaction. Several lessons for future implementation are presented, before limitations and further research are described.

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“…A list of methods for internationalization of curricula currently available to today's students is listed in Table 1. Methods include study abroad (Coryell 2011;Fry 2009;Kramer 2012;Liu and Kramer 2010;Lopez del Puerto and Gordon 2010;Lu et al 2009;Moyano and Traver 2004;Rebholz 2000), service learning trips (Farrow et al 2011;Kachuyevski and Jones 2011;Koch 2012), international distance education (Jaselskis et al 2010;Obonyo and Wu 2008;Soibelman et al 2011), crosscultural courses (Holland and Vasquez de Velasco 1998), internationalized curriculum/syllabus (Darwish et al 2012;Farrow and Kramer 2009), and in-country travel.…”

Section: Educational Methods -International Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefit-Cost Analysis of International Instructional Methods for Construction Management and Engineering Students

Werner

Azambuja

2014

Construction Research Congress 2014

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In the last five years, the construction management department at Southern Illinois University (SIUE) has offered two semester travel study courses with weeklong travel study trips for students. One trip was to Mexico and one to Panama. The objective of these courses was to provide students with an opportunity to learn about and be exposed to international construction projects and the culture of another country. Two other courses and similar trips are being considered for the future, but SIUE faculty found that trips to international destinations can be challenging to plan and are quite costly in time and money. Are the benefits of a travel study experience worth the cost? Are there less costly alternatives that can achieve similar benefits? In this paper a number of methods for providing international educational experience to students are examined. The fiscal costs of travel studies were found to be readily available, but the benefits were not so easily quantified. Overall it was determined that given the international nature of construction projects in the world today, students do need some type of international awareness and exposure as part of their educational program, but traditional travel study courses may not be the best option.

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Preparing Civil Engineers for International Collaboration in Construction Management

Cited by 22 publications

References 12 publications

Which “culture”? A critical analysis of intercultural communication in engineering education

Which “culture”? A critical analysis of intercultural communication in engineering education

Virtual collaborative learning for building design

Benefit-Cost Analysis of International Instructional Methods for Construction Management and Engineering Students

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