Abstract:
This research full paper explores first-year engineering (FYE) students’ attitudes toward and understanding of engineering, investigating differences among male and femal...View moreMetadata
Abstract:
This research full paper explores first-year engineering (FYE) students’ attitudes toward and understanding of engineering, investigating differences among male and female students in two different courses: Engineering and Society (ES110), a sociotechnical course, and Physics I (PH131). A pre/post survey was used to understand how student attitudes toward and understanding of engineering were affected after taking these courses. Four cohorts of students over three fall semesters (2018-2020) were examined: males in ES110; females in ES110; males in PH131; and females in PH131. Our results confirmed previous findings - compared to the control group, ES110 students showed more positive outcomes in terms of academic and engineering self-confidence and their understanding of engineering. Male/female comparisons revealed some interesting findings. Compared to their male counterparts, female PH131 students experienced a greater drop in academic and engineering self-confidence. In ES110, females showed a greater increase in engineering self-confidence, but a greater drop in their engineering sense-of-fit, yet they began with higher pre-scores - across all cohorts - and ended with post-scores similar to their male peers for this subscale. All student scores dropped in the sense-of-fit subscale, although the post-scores for ES110 students were slightly higher than for PH131. ES110 females’ post-scores were the highest across all cohorts for two subscales (engineering self-confidence; understanding of engineering) and were the second highest for the other two subscales. PH131 females’ post-scores were the lowest across all cohorts for three subscales (academic and engineering self-confidence; satisfaction with engineering/sense of fit). Overall, our results indicate that first-year students benefit from taking a sociotechnical engineering course in their first semester, compared to a strictly technical curriculum, and those benefits are even greater for female students.
Published in: 2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)
Date of Conference: 08-11 October 2022
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 29 November 2022
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