Engineering Education Considering Environmental Issues: Development of Holistic (Ecological) Paradigm

The education of engineers, who are aware of today’s challenges and future opportunities, plays an important role in economical and social development of different societies. The current engineering education system tries to increase professional engineering knowledge in related fields and does not consider the side effects of engineering activities which commonly impact the environment. This thinking structure, called the Newtonian paradigm is vertical thinking based on linear and sequential phenomena. In the Newtonian paradigm, the engineering education program is developed on the basis of maximum usage of available environmental opportunities and control of natural events. In time, the undesirable effects of this engineering paradigm on the environment become visible and also some signs of un-sustainability in engineering systems appear to make some problems in the long time performance of these systems. These impacts force the engineering education system to develop engineering knowledge and pay more attention to the environment. The holistic paradigm has been developed in response to these requirements. The holistic paradigm is based on parallel and non-linear phenomena. In this paradigm in addition to increasing professional knowledge, engineers are made familiar with the interactions between engineering activities and the environment. This way the maximum profit will be obtained from available opportunities and also the engineering activity impacts are minimized. In this paper the paradigm shift trend and its future vision in engineering education and its effects on the development of engineering systems as well as environment are discussed.