工程伦理教育在工科通识教育中的作用和实践

随着国家发展进入新时代,如何在工程领域培养一批又一批具备能够满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要的价值观和技能的人才,则成为解决新的主要社会矛盾的关键。在技能和价值观二者之中,价值观的教育和养成更为重要,难度更大。学界正在推行通识教育,力图通过通识教育培养工科学生对真、善、美的鉴赏力和理想追求。然而,由于通识教育目标不明确等诸多因素,工科的通识教育效果尚不理想,出现了通识教育与专业教育脱节的现象。为此,我们在化学工程教育中开设了具有中国特色的《化学工程伦理》研究生必修课程,试图将它作为专业教育和通识教育之间的桥梁,期望能为培养适应新时代要求、具有全球胜任力和竞争力的一流工程人才探索一条新路径。

The Role and Practices of Engineering Ethics Education in the Liberal Arts Education for Engineering Students

The nature of science is to discover while the nature of engineering is to create.With China’s development entering the new era,how to cultivate numerous talents with appropriate values and skills that can meet the people’s desire for a beautiful life will be critical for solving the major social contradictions.However,between skills and values,education on the latter is more important and more challenging.Therefore,liberal arts education is being promoted in the engineering education in China in order to cultivate the appreciation and pursuit of truth,kindness and beauty.Unfortunately,the liberal arts education of engineering students is not satisfactory due to unclear engineering goals and improper curriculum setup,which has resulted in a big gap between the liberal arts education and the professional education.In order to bridge the gap,we started a new course named Chemical Engineering Ethics,a mandatory course for graduate students of chemical engineering at Tsinghua University.This paper has briefly analyzed the problems in the current liberal arts education for engineering students and described the practices in the chemical engineering ethics education.