The interview as a learning tool: an experience of emotional motivation in engineering degrees

Abstract

[EN] Technical studies in Higher Education have traditionally been seen as complex, difficult and abstract by students, and particularly when compared to university careers in the field of humanities, more related to social and human aspects. In the line of innovating in the field of engineering teaching, and with the intention of bringing engineering and learning strategies based on the social, this paper presents an experience of motivation and emotional bonding of students with their degrees in the field of industrial and aeronautical engineering.

In this experience, the interview has been used as an educational tool. So, it has been applied to a very specific topic (sustainability and development in the industrial age) of the subject Sustainable Development and Environmental Ethics, included in the program of all the degrees at the School of Design Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica del València. The experience consisted in interviewing a family member or close person who had lived the industrialization age in the Spanish countryside, in order to enrichen the contents given at class with the personal experience of the interviewed relative.

As a result, the experience is considered very satisfactory by the students as it allows them to reinforce the knowledge acquired in in the classroom being able to link theory to the personal experiences by people close to them who had the chance to experience the emergence of industrialization in the Spanish countryside. Thus, the interview provides students an emotional bond with the matter they are studying, achieving at least three main objectives, as the experience: 1) lets the students know about real experiences by relatives or close people in the industrialization age in Spain, 2) facilitates the contextualization of the matter in this specific historical period and 3) motivates the students to the subject and their careers.