Presentation at Meet & Eat event at TU Delft’s Teaching Academy
14 Oct 2025
Delft
To judge or not to judge? Or how to advance the social responsibility of scientists and engineers through mock trial pedagogy?
At the Justice by Design Lab at TU Delft, we believe that TU Delft students should not only be resourceful creators and applicators of new knowledge, but engaged, reflective decision makers capable of evaluating the societal implications of the technologies they help develop. How can we teach students to judge if that impact is positive or negative, and for whom?
During Meet & Eat session at the Teaching Lab, Fernando Secomandi invited educators for a discussion: what if the path to ethical reflection doesn’t run through textbooks or traditional lectures, but by stepping into a simulated courtroom? It might sound a little distant for an engineering education context, yet mock trials are commonly used as active learning strategies in social sciences, humanities and law schools. By engaging students in structured debates and role-playing, the method enhances their understanding of theoretical concepts and their application to real-world controversies. When presented with a compelling challenge, students rise to the occasion—becoming not just learners, but socially responsible thinkers.
The Meet & Eat concluded with a discussion on how to adapt the mock trial format to different disciplines, along with useful references and practical tips. Meet & Eat is a monthly meeting organized by the Teaching Academy at TU Delft to share educational innovations from lecturers.
To learn more about mock trials and its four-step implementation explored in the course, feel free to reach out to Fernando Secomandi (Director of Justice by Design Lab).
