Keywords

20.1 Introduction

Engineering academic curriculum is mainly influenced by accreditation criteria programs (EA 2005; ABET 2008; ENAEE 2008) that are flexible, developmental and targeted at the specific needs of industries and engineers’ expectations (Earnest 2005). In today’s professional world, the employees would need metacognitive and self-controlled manner to take situation specific decisions (Conley 2014) and when and how to apply these particular strategies and skills, in doing tasks or solving problems at workplace efficiently (Flavell 1979; Prytula 2012; Sengul and Yasemin 2015). The combination of practical expertise and one’s soft skills, i.e. amalgamation of non-technical and attitudinal competencies, helps professional engineers to become successful (Hissey 2000; Passow and Passow 2017; Azmi et al. 2018; Russo 2016; Leslie 2016). The theoretical knowledge only helps the learners become aware of different functionality of one’s ability but the practical execution teaches them how to use these competencies with proficiency in unfavourable situations in real life (Williams et al. 2016).

20.2 Metacognition and Competence in Engineering Education

Metacognition is a higher-order thinking skill or process that makes learners aware of their awareness (Flavell 1979; Wenden 1998). Classified among 21st century skills, metacognition includes self-assessment of the development of critical thinking, communication skills, collaborative practices (Geisinger 2016), indefinite integral problems solving (Sengul and Yasemin 2015), etc. Through metacognition, learners can be more specific about how to monitor and modify the way they think, not only in academics but also in career and life in general (Prytula 2012).

The term competence, first used by Lundberg (1972) in 1970, is a set of demonstrable merits, i.e. the combination of practical and theoretical knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes and behaviours, awareness and candidness; these competencies enable a person to perform skilfully, make valuable decisions, take effective action and correlate with performance on the job, that can be measured against well accepted standards, and can be improved through training and development (Passow and Passow 2017; Russo 2016; Leslie 2016). Competencies are divided into technical, non-technical and attitudinal/behavioural (Passow and Passow 2017; Russo 2016; Male et al. 2009).

20.3 Literature Review

Metacognition can compensate for the lack of appropriate domain knowledge when metacognitive awareness leads to recognizing the areas of limited understanding, adapting working hypotheses, monitoring thinking, and revisiting early interpretations (Kim and Jeeheon 2013). Even in the new advanced technological era, engineers along with technical skills require employability skills (Robinson 2000), foreign language proficiency and better soft skill proficiency (Gilleard and Gilleard 2002), multilateral and technical and non-technical expertise to deal with professionals in various disciplines (Inman 2006), problem-based learning (Kumar and Natarajan 2007), and competencies expanding beyond countries (Lucena et al. 2008). Engineering educators should focus on developing generic engineering competencies (Male 2010), cognitive competencies (Frank 2012), requirement of the industries (Nair et al. 2009), career aspiration (Itani and Issam 2016; Passow 2013), successful social behaviours (Bakar and Ting 2011), and the current level of skills owned by the staffs (Russo 2016). These competencies should be a part of the curriculum to develop both technical and non-technical skills among engineers (Azmi et al. 2018).

20.4 Objectives

The objectives of the paper are to study how the metacognitive awareness helps Oskar Schindler identify all the limitations and unfavourable conditions. It also focuses on identifying and analysing the competencies used by Oskar Schindler to execute his job and responsibilities.

20.5 Methodology

This qualitative case study is descriptive in nature. The character chosen for the study is Oskar Schindler from the movie Schindler’s List. The character of Oskar Schindler is scrutinized for the use of his metacognitive awareness. Use of metacognitive awareness is analysed as per his understanding of the situations, processes and methods. An analysis of his jobs and responsibilities is done to find out the use of generic engineering competencies by him. Generic engineering competencies have been selected from the previous studies and shortlisted according to the need of industries and professional engineers (Russo 2016; Male et al. 2009).

20.6 Results and Analysis

Oskar Schindler used his metacognitive awareness to implement his generic engineering competencies, i.e. the combination of engineering (technical skills) and generic (non-technical/attitudinal skills) competencies to analyse and solve ill structured and ill-defined problems with efficiency (Spielberg et al. 1993). It was his metacognitive awareness that helped him use his competencies. Table 20.1 shows the types of generic engineering competencies, the specific categories of technical, non-technical and attitudinal/behavioural competencies, and the situations where Schindler used his metacognitive awareness to perform his tasks.

Table 20.1 Showing the types of competency, their category, and role of the metacognitive awareness in the use of competencies by Oskar Schindler
Full size table

Metacognitive awareness, the knowledge about the person, the task and the strategy, is a learner centred approach. Beyond the curricula, examples of such nature can be referred to, to help the learners think of/visualise situation specific decisions (Conley 2014). Learners can be guided to be more specific in monitoring the task execution and mentoring their own thinking (Williams et al. 2016). Use of such situation specific examples may also allow discussion on the relevance of problem finding before problem solving, seeking close ended as well as open ended solutions, working with the resources available, thinking through the complexities, etc. (Flavell 1979; Prytula 2012; Sengul and Yasemin 2015; Williams et al. 2016). The learners can be made aware that the way they think is liable to be acclimatised when they revisit their earlier interpretations (Kim and Jeeheon 2013).

20.7 Discussion and Implications

Despite any training, technical and domain expertise, Schindler’s metacognitive awareness for self-assessment helped him recognize the areas of limited understanding, analyse the adverse situations, solve the complex problems, and be specific about how to monitor and modify the things around him. His metacognitive awareness, known as being aware about awareness, made him use his competencies to solve the problem of money, space, and work force for opening his factory. He believed in ‘simple engineering’ and used his technical competencies, practical knowledge, skills, ability and familiarity with techniques, tools, materials to analyse and overcome the problems. He used his interpersonal skills, i.e. non-technical competencies to communicate and take situation specific decisions. These competencies compensated for his technical skills in maintaining system safety, building his team cohesively, believing in himself, and making a fortune for himself. His attitudinal/behavioural competencies helped him become aware of the scenario and its demand. He knew how to deal with the needs/demands of German army. His factual and conceptual knowledge formed the foundation of his ability. Application of metacognitive awareness and competencies made him perform his tasks and deal with all the hurdles and chiselled his behaviour to meet the demands and expectations of his customer. His positive workplace adaptation led his organization and employees towards improved productivity with higher morale. He remained up to date with current events, contemporary business concepts, and techniques.

20.8 Conclusions

Metacognitive awareness and competencies help in the execution of engineers’ aptitudes and abilities. They make them more mindful of what they are doing at their workplace and how these skills and competencies might be used differently in different situations. When it comes to knowledge, there are different kinds of knowledge and different ways of acquiring metacognitive awareness and competencies but it is practical knowledge that often leads to a deeper understanding of a concept through the act of seeing, doing and experiencing.