Learning ergonomics – challenges resulting from the multidisciplinary and applied nature of the subject
ny consideration about teaching and learning has to be discipline specific as it is intertwined with conceptions around what constitutes knowledge in that discipline. Research and literature about teaching and learning in ergonomics in a Higher Education context is rare. Existing literature mainly focuses on the design of a syllabus (e.g. Strasser & Zink, 2007). However, teaching and learning ergonomics is more than learning a series of different topics. The multidisciplinary nature of ergonomics proves a challenge as students have to acquire fundamental knowledge about concepts and paradigms in different disciplines as well as to be able to choose the rightconcepts and integrate them into a solution. From a student‘s perspective, this is complicated by the fact that ergonomics has as its objective to be applied to a work system and to improve - in different ways - somebody‘s work place or working situation; and often the student will have little or no experience of this particular work system. Teaching ergonomics, therefore, has to make a wise decision about how much, and what, fundamental knowledge of the different basic disciplines a student will have to learn. At the same time it has to enable students to a make the right choice of concepts and paradigms in different contexts of application. With respect to the applied nature of ergonomics it seems to be sensible that the solution cannot lie in the approach of teaching students all different fields of application due to the multitude of different fields of application: product ergonomics vs. production ergonomics, different fields of production ergonomics (automotive industry, mining, agriculture), service industry etc. but rather needs to find a balanced integrated approach. Traditionally, teaching ergonomics seems to be based on expertise. This paper will analyze the specific requirements of teaching in ergonomics and human factors that supports students‘ learning.
Swantje ZSCHERNACK
Department of Human Kinetics and Ergonomics, Rhodes University, South Africa
国际会议
17th World Congress on Ergonomics(第十七届国际人类工效学大会)
北京
英文
1-4
2009-08-09（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）