Cross Sectional Assessment of CEM Curriculum Offerings at the Pre-college level in North Carolina (Evaluation)
- Conference
- Location
-
Virtual Conference
- Publication Date
-
July 26, 2021
- Start Date
-
July 26, 2021
- End Date
-
July 19, 2022
- Conference Session
-
Pre-College Engineering Education Division Technical Session 3
- Tagged Division
-
Pre-College Engineering Education
- Page Count
-
18
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--36881
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/36881
- Download Count
-
325
Paper Authors
Cayla Lenore Anderson Clemson University
Cayla Anderson is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in the Planning, Design, and Built Environment program at Clemson University. Her research interests include construction education at the pre-college level, workforce development for minorities in construction, and gender and space intersections on construction jobsites. Her interests stems from her experience as a Black woman in the construction industry.
Cayla received a dual degree in Building Construction and Real Estate from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2016. She has worked as a construction engineer for various general contracting companies in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Dhaval Gajjar Clemson University
Dr. Dhaval Gajjar is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University’s Nieri Family Department of Construction Science and Management in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities. Dr. Gajjar has conducted research over the last 11 years on construction workforce and talent attraction strategies, project delivery, project close-out and post-occupancy evaluation. He has authored over thirty (30) publications and proceedings disseminating the research results. He has also conducted over fifty (50) industry presentations educating the industry professionals on using the research tools. He is a certified Facility Management Professional (FMP) and Sustainable Facility Professional (SFP). He also has significant industry experience working as a Project Manager for commercial general contractor and as a Construction Owner Rep for a large owner company in the US.
Abstract
According to the Association of General Contractors of America (AGC), a driving force of the construction industry's talent is the education pipeline increasing awareness for pre-college level students regarding the construction industry. Students' awareness about the construction industry can be in the absence of current construction industry trends at the pre-college level. Studies show identified knowledge opportunities between construction education and the construction industry in students entering the future workforce. Knowledge opportunities about the construction industry can contribute to a workforce shortage of future workforce in the construction industry. Research suggests a shortage of future workforce in the construction industry within the next decade or by 2040. Coincidently, data is showing pre-college level students lack knowledge about careers in the construction industry. Due to the projected future workforce decline, studies are examining various methods to attract pre-college level students into the construction industry. Career and technical education (CTE) curriculum is an essential method at the pre-college level since students primarily make career decisions during this time. Construction, engineering, and management (CEM) curriculum is a type of CTE curriculum designed to educate pre-college level students about careers in the construction industry. While there is an existing curriculum utilized to address the knowledge opportunities between construction education and the construction industry, there is no academic literature providing scholarly insight on the current state of construction education at the pre-college level. Understanding the current state of the CEM curriculum at the pre-college level is needed to address this issue.
A literature review is needed to understand CEM education at the pre-college level. Based on the literature review, the researcher aims to understand the current state of the CEM curriculum at the middle and high school levels by assessing course offerings in North Carolina for the 2019 – 2020 academic year. For this study, the data gathered will reflect the top five populated counties in North Carolina, representing 33% of the overall population. Companies in North Carolina report having difficulty filling some or all positions, including salaried and skilled professionals. This identified shortage indicates a need for various methods to attract and sustain the workforce.
The CEM topics are identified from common CEM course concepts utilized in academic articles. The CEM topics will then be used to develop a matrix to record the course names. Data will be collected using both school county websites and a questionnaire. The researcher will identify school background information and courses offered within CEM on the school county websites. A questionnaire will be used to gather data for key topics included within the course via the course planning tool (syllabus). Upon reviewing the school county websites, course planning tools, and questionnaire responses, the study's analysis will be using descriptive quantitative and qualitative methods. The analysis for the matrix will be in two steps. Thematic coding (qualitative) and a data count model (quantitative) will analyze the data. This study's expected outcomes are knowledge of curriculum offerings, topics included within the curriculum offerings, and school type (Title 1 compared to traditional schools).
Anderson, C. L., & Gajjar, D. (2021, July), Cross Sectional Assessment of CEM Curriculum Offerings at the Pre-college level in North Carolina (Evaluation) Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36881
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2021 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015