Developing Effective Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering

开发有效的信息以提高公众对工程的理解这项提案正在提交给NSF工程局内的工程教育和工程中心部门。该项目由美国国家工程院实施，目的是鼓励工程界就工程学的作用、重要性和职业潜力向各种受众进行协调、一致和有效的沟通，这些受众包括学童、他们的家长、教师和辅导员；地方、州和联邦各级的政策制定者；以及广大公众。智力价值促进美国公众对工程学(PUE)的更多了解每年花费数亿美元。尽管有这些支出，工程对我们日常生活的影响，工程师工作的性质，以及通过工程教育提供的机会，在很大程度上仍然没有被大多数美国人认识到。过去十年的民意调查和其他研究一直表明，成年人和儿童对工程师的工作了解有限，认为工程学是一个枯燥乏味的职业，认为工程学没有医学、科学和教学等其他职业那么有声望。对工程学缺乏了解可能会导致严重的后果，可能会吸引美国年轻人--尤其是女性和代表性不足的少数族裔--投身与工程学相关的职业，并支持美国保持技术创新能力的能力。正如2002年的报告《提高公众对工程学的认识》(National Academy Press)所记录的那样，目前情况的一个重要原因是工程界未能使用一致的和经验性的信息来与其试图接触到的各种受众进行沟通。该项目有以下目标：1.确定少数似乎可能鼓励公众更好地理解工程学的信息，2.测试这些信息在不同受众中的有效性，以及3.为了达到目标，该项目将召集一组广告专业人员帮助确定一组潜在有效的PUE消息；与感兴趣的受众(如初中生、他们的家长、教师和指导顾问；以及商业和社区领袖)进行八次单独的焦点小组讨论，以完善消息；并通过对一大群随机选择的美国人进行调查，确定改进后的消息的相对有效性。一个由NAE主席任命的与该主题相关领域的专家组成的指导委员会将监督该项目。广泛影响该项目的主要产品将是指导委员会的报告，该报告将描述研究的目的和方法，包括研究结果的摘要，并提出委员会的发现和建议。该报告将分发给2002年NAE PUE调查项目中确定的约600个组织以及提出要求的其他个人和团体。此外，指导委员会成员将在选定的专业会议上介绍报告。通过确定一组经验证的PUE信息，该项目将提供一个共同的基础，工程界可以在此基础上建立有效的沟通策略，最终提高公众对工程学的理解。1在这项提案中，工程界包括专业工程学会、工业和行业协会、设计和承包公司、许多学院和大学、教育协会、国家研发实验室、一些联邦机构、某些媒体部门和许多博物馆。

Developing Effective Messages for ImprovingPublic Understanding of EngineeringThis proposal is being submitted to the Division of Engineering Education & Centers within the NSF Directorate for Engineering. The goal of the project, to be carried out by the National Academy of Engineering, is to encourage coordinated, consistent, and effective communication by the engineering community about the role, importance, and career potential of engineering to a variety of audiences, including school children, their parents, teachers, and counselors; policy makers at the local, state, and federal level; and the public at large.Intellectual MeritEfforts to promote greater public understanding of engineering (PUE) in the United States consume hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Despite these expenditures, the impact of engineering on our daily lives, the nature of what engineers do, and the opportunities made available through an engineering education remain largely unrecognized by most Americans. Polling and other research over the past decade has consistently shown that adults and children have a limited understanding of what engineers do, perceive engineering to be a boring or "nerdy" profession, and view engineering as having less prestige than other professions, such as medicine, science, and teaching. Poor understanding of engineering has potentially serious consequences related to attracting young Americans-particularly women and under-represented minorities-into engineering-related careers and supporting the nation's ability to maintain its capacity for technological innovation. As documented in the 2002 report, Raising Public Awareness of Engineering (National Academies Press), one important cause of the current situation is the failure of the engineering community to use consistent and empirically derived messages for communicating with the variety of audiences it attempts to reach.This project has the following objectives:1. Identify a small number of messages that appear likely to encourage greater public understanding of engineering,2. Test the effectiveness of these messages in different audiences, and3. Disseminate the results of the message testing to the engineering community.In meeting the objectives, the project will convene a group of advertising professionals to help identify a set of potentially effective PUE messages; conduct eight separate focus group discussions with audiences of interest (such as middle and high school students, their parents, teachers, and guidance counselors; and business and community leaders) to refine the messages; and determine the relative effectiveness of the refined messages by conducting a survey of a large group of randomly selected Americans. A steering committee comprised of experts in fields relevant to the topic and appointed by the NAE President will oversee the project.Broader ImpactsThe primary product of the project will be a steering committee report, which will describe the purpose and method of the study, include a summary of the research findings, and present the committee's findings and recommendations. The report will be distributed to some 600 organizations identified in a 2002 NAE PUE survey project as well as to other individuals and groups that request it. In addition, members of the steering committee will present the report at selected professional meetings. By identifying a set of empirically tested PUE messages, the project will provide a common foundation upon which the engineering community can build effective communications strategies, ultimately leading to gains in public understanding of engineering.1 In this proposal, the engineering community includes professional engineering societies, industry and industry associations, design and contracting firms, many colleges and universities, education associations, national R&D laboratories, a number of federal agencies, certain media sectors, and many museums.