Reflection on your personal perspective through the perspective of others. A step in dealing with wicked problems

Abstract

Don't we all sometimes seek the perspective of someone unrelated to our work, to get unstuck, or when we seek creativity? Engineers, educators, and students put their trust into science, protocols, procedures and models. Rightfully so, from the perspective of the laws of engineering this makes sense. This also explains why when people deal with challenges, they often tackle them (consciously or unconsciously) with their preferred strategies (Hayashi 2018) (Mezirow 2000). However, these preferred strategies might offer a false sense of security because they oversimplify the complicated nature of the challenge. People might focus on a part of problem which is easy to solve rather than addressing the bigger networked problem (Kahneman 2013). In dealing with complex problems, it is helpful for engineers to become aware of habits and open eyes to other ways of seeing and doing, as solving (today's) multidisciplinary wicked problems often require that. (Braun 2021; Braun and Kramer 2015; Kramer and Braun 2018; Seniuk Cicek et al. 2021; Veltman, Van Keulen, and Voogt 2019). Recognizing one's own perspective is the first step towards valuing other perspectives or approaches to a problem. By understanding 'our own eyes', we can connect with and value other perspectives and alternate ways of doing something. This workshop introduces reflection through third person perspectives, to help participants recognize the habits that are embedded in their own perspectives. Participants can later apply the method and material used in the workshop in their own educational context. It is suitable for students, researchers, and teachers. Learning outcomes • Participants will become aware of their perspective in a safe and interesting way. • Participants will experience that their own perspective impacts the way they approach (work) situations, by reflecting on these situations through others' perspective. • Participants will receive access to the material so that they can use the format of the workshop as a tool to use with their students or peers. • In the final conference proceedings, we will include the type of insights participants found through our workshop, what they might expect the value to be for (their) students, the impressions of the participants about what worked well and how participant intent to use it in their context.