Examining exemplarity in problem-based engineering education for sustainability

Oskar Negt’s critical educational concept of exemplarity was a core component of problem-oriented, project based education in Denmark at its inception in the 1970s. Nearly fifty years on, this model of project education has grown in popularity around the world, especially in the field of engineering education. In the practice of engineering education today, while these projects have retained an interdisciplinary, practice-oriented, and experiential learning approach, the specific socio-historical aspects of exemplarity in Negt’s theory have fallen by the wayside. In this paper, we ask whether these aspects have a place in twenty-first century engineering education, with a specific focus on the issue of sustainability, and what could be learned from exemplarity for curriculum design. The paper critically examines Negt’s concept of exemplarity and its early application in project-based higher education in Denmark, then looks at the way in which it translated into engineering education, starting at Aalborg University, before appraising its relevance in the light of the growing number of sustainability issues covered in many engineering curricula.