Humanization and humanitarization of engineering education

Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of humanization and humanitarization of technical education. The relevance of these processes for training highly qualified engineers is shown. Students of technical universities must acquire the humanitarian knowledge to realize the mission of science and technology in the life of humanity and for identification of their own role in realization of the mission. One of the ways to do it is interdisciplinary education; social and humanities in technical education should be treated as fundamental, including advanced language study, changing stereotypes of thinking, acceptance of humanitarian culture and development of communication competence. The new state educational standards in Russia for all technical programs require a new approach to designing curriculums. The proposed research studies the curriculums designed for engineering fields of study at technical universities. The results of research show that elective courses have been added to curriculums which can be chosen by students. They are aimed at developing general cultural humanitarian competences and personal qualities important for a future engineer. New curriculums include an increased amount of credit hours for foreign language study and many new humanities elective courses such as Culture of Scientific and Business Communication, Culture and Personality, Basics of Personal and Communicative Culture, Social Technologies, and Organizational Psychology. Methodological system is developed based on polyparadigmal approach. The results of comparative analysis of programs for Electrical Power Engineering and Electrical Engineering at technical universities of Siberian region are provided.