A Theoretical Model Of The Engineering Education Culture: A Tool For Change

Abstract

A wealth of definitions for culture abound in the literature relating to culture, but Schein's influential model 3 provides a useful starting point, because of its clear delineation between three levels of culture: the observable manifestations of culture (artefacts), the values and behavioral norms that underlie them and at the deepest level a core of shared beliefs and assumptions. Schein defined culture as: a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems Schein, 1992, p.12