The Nature of Engineering Work: Curricular Messaging and Alignment with Diverse Undergraduate Students’ Values, Interests, and Engineering Intentions

作为工程本科教育的一部分，学生通常会遇到强调核心工程技术技能的课程，但忽视了“综合工程技能”，如合作能力，创造力，以及表现出解决复杂社会问题所需的道德思维。工程教育在塑造学生对工程工作性质的理解方面发挥着重要作用，其中包括这种“综合技能”。因此，了解学生何时、何地以及如何接触到有关工程工作性质和范围的“信息”是很重要的。这个项目希望调查工程课程和教学如何代表工程实践，以及这些代表如何与学生的价值观和兴趣相一致，目的是了解这些信息如何影响学生的归属感和在该领域坚持下去的意图。对两个对比的工程学科的系统研究将更好地了解学生对工程内容的看法的影响课程内容包括不同学生对该领域的看法、他们的适应感和他们的未来计划。现有的研究正确地集中在学生对校园气氛的看法以及与教师和同龄人的互动上，但在很大程度上忽视了对课程内容本身的研究。这种理论驱动的混合方法设计的结果将扩展和补充现有的研究本科生学习工程的动机及其对他们的连接和承诺领域的影响。通过对两个工程学科的学生和教师的访谈、课堂观察和学生普查数据进行三角分析，本研究将扩展关于工程学习的不同动机的有限文献。为未来的工程师提供全面的工程技能，对于培养专业人员有效地处理复杂的社会技术问题以及与来自各种背景的利益相关者合作至关重要。此外，更深入地了解课程信息向学生传达的信息，包括工程工作的性质、工程师是谁以及创新解决问题所需的技能，将支持更清晰地传达更广泛的工程技能的价值。这种课程信息可以吸引更多样化的学生，他们重视与社会有关的问题，并可以积极促进这些学生在该领域的归属感，并希望坚持学习和进入工程职业。 该项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境的基础研究，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展的工作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As part of an undergraduate education in engineering, students typically encounter courses that emphasize core engineering technical skills but neglect the "comprehensive engineering skills" such as the ability to collaborate, to be creative, and to exhibit ethical thinking that are needed to address complex societal problems. Engineering education plays a major role in shaping students' understanding of the nature of engineering work which includes such "comprehensive skills." Thus, it is important to understand when, where, and how students encounter "messages" about the nature and scope of engineering work. This project hopes to investigate how engineering curricula and instruction represent engineering practice and how these representations align with students' values and interests, with the goal of understanding how these messages affect students’ sense of belonging and intentions to persist in the field.The systematic study of two contrasting engineering disciplines will generate greater understandings of the effect of student perceptions of the content of engineering curricula on diverse students' perceptions of the field, their sense of fit, and their future plans. Existing research has focused, rightly, on students' perceptions of campus climate and interactions with faculty and peers, but has largely neglected study of the curricular content itself. Findings from this theory-driven, mixed-method design will extend and complement existing research on undergraduates' motivations for studying engineering and their impact on their connection and commitment to the field. By triangulating data from student and instructor interviews, classroom observations, and census surveys of students in two engineering disciplines, this study will extend a limited literature on diverse motivations for engineering study. Providing future engineers with comprehensive engineering skills is critical to preparing professionals to engage productively with complex sociotechnical problems and with stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds. Additionally, a deeper understanding of what curricular messaging communicates to students about the nature of engineering work, about who engineers are, and about the skill set needed for innovative problem solving will support clearer communication of the value of this broader range of engineering skills. Such curricular messaging may attract a more diverse population of students who value socially relevant problems and may contribute positively to these students' sense of belonging in the field and desire to persist in their studies and into engineering careers. This project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.