Research Project: Aligning Engineering Education with Engineering Practice
The
overarching hypothesis for this NSF funded study is that the current
educational system is inadequately aligned with engineering practice.
That is, experiences in high school and college give students an incomplete
picture of what it means to be an engineer, and of the skills and knowledge
they need to develop to become one. Therefore, potential engineering
talent is lost at all stages as students move from high school to college
and into professional practice. We hypothesize that aligning the engineering
education pathways with the skills, knowledge, values, and ways of thinking
of practicing engineers (their "epistemic
frame" ) will lead to and retain a broader and more diverse engineering
workforce. This project is studying (1) the engineering practice to identify
the skills, knowledge, values, epistemologies, and ways of thinking of
effective engineers; (2) STEM teacher and guidance counselor beliefs
to better understand how
classroom and counseling connections inform and/or hinder future studies
and careers in engineering; (3) the learning experiences of freshman
engineering students to determine what influences them to enter and remain
in the field of engineering; and (4) the intended and enacted curriculum
within high school pre-engineering classes (Project Lead the Way-PLTW)
to investigate the level of integration of STEM content.
Current Work - see publications for more details of findings!
Engineering practice research group, within the College of Engineering:
- We conducted a mixed quantitative and qualitative online survey of engineers, engineering managers, and those with engineering degrees but now in another field (N ~ 400). Based on the responses from this initial survey and interviews, we created a quantitative survey that we sent out more broadly to the same groups of individuals. We are now analyzing that data (N ~ 1600).
- Freshman engineering students have conducted 55 interviews of engineers in person and about 35 through MentorNet. We are using this data to better understand the epistemic frame of engineers. We are also analyzing student reflections on this interview experience and their thoughts on becoming engineers.
- We have completed case studies of six engineering firms, including over 50 hours of observations and 50 interviews. We continue to analyze this data and write articles based upon it.
Engineering education research group, within the School of Education:
- We conducted an online survey for high school STEM teachers and guidance counselors. Initial analysis of this data is complete with findings that new Project Lead the Way (PLTW) teachers are more likely than science and math teachers to feel school support for engineering, and to say that they integrate science, math and engineering in their courses. Teachers generally said that SES was not a consideration in recommending engineering to student, but there does appear to be an unconscious bias towards recommending engineering to higher SES students. New PLTW teachers are less likely to see high academic achievement as essential for entrance into engineering careers.
- Through videotaped analysis of PLTW classes, we found that teachers do not explicitly connect to mathematics as often as they could. However, the rate of these explicity connections increases in more advanced PLTW courses. content is not as explicitly conne(HS engineering curriculum) with traditional science and math courses.
- We plan on further videotape analysis to provide a better understanding on high school student pre-engineering experiences.
- After reviewing characteristics of students taking Project Lead the Way courses, we found that their scores on state science tests tend to increase relative to their peers, while their scores on state math tests tend to decrease relative to their peers.