Scoping Review of Character Development Pedagogies in Engineering Education

When preparing engineering students for professional practice, the importance of their engagement in global, social, and ethical dimensions of engineering cannot be overemphasized. The importance of ethics is well discussed in engineering education literature, but much less is known about how to effectively prepare graduates for the complex global, social, and ethical challenges of engineering practice. Studies have found that common challenges to engineering ethics education include lack of student interest, resistance from faculty, and a lack of consensus regarding topics and pedagogical methods to include in already saturated curricula.We believe a character-focused approach to engineering ethics education could address these challenges by providing language and tools that are easily accessible to students and faculty for engaging ethical challenges in engineering and addressing students' development as individuals and future professionals. This paper investigates recent pedagogical efforts to implement character education in undergraduate engineering education through a scoping literature review. The resulting synthesis of 30 publications reveals a variety of pedagogical approaches, the majority of which are student centered and already commonly used by engineering educators. Our findings indicate that character education is indeed a viable and accessible approach to engineering ethics education. Learning assessment was largely limited across observed interventions, so future studies are needed to examine student and faculty engagement as well as impact on students’ ethical decision-making processes.