Knowledge and Learning in Engineering Practice

During the 20th century, traditional epistemological theories of knowledge have been under siege. In recent years, efforts have been made to reconstruct the concept of 'knowledge' to emphasize its contextual, situated and social character. Drawing on the results and methods of these efforts, this chapter discusses the cencept of learning and purports to theorize learning in a Social Theory of Learning (STL).

The attempt to reconstruct learning in an STL addresses three main issues: an STL must try to specify the subject-world relationship, describe the 'mechanism' of learning, and identify the 'telos' of learning. This attempt will in fact give answers to three fundamental questions: 1) What is learning? 2) How do we learn? and 3) Why do we learn? These questions are discussed in relation to engineering practices of getting to know and learning.