Developmental Engineering: A Pedagogy of Humans and Artifacts
Understanding of the fundamental ontogenic nature of the relation between humans and machines-artifacts has implications for engineering pedagogy in general and for its P-12 educational antecedents in particular. Drawing on, developmental theories, educational and instructional research and K-12 empirical observations, we propose that humans from very early on recognize human-made artifacts as different and qualitatively distinct from objects created by nature. Resulting from this assertion are some fundamental implications for how we educate children to prepare them for modern citizenship as well as careers in engineering and technology. We define human-made artifacts as a distinct class of events that create, foster, elicit and motivate humans in a manner that is different from the relationships that humans form in other contexts.