Conference Session

Student Recruitment and Retention

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer VanAntwerp, Calvin College; Rachel Reed, Calvin College; Crystal Bruxvoort, Calvin College; Neil Carlson, Calvin College

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

, since those who do not enjoy or thrive in that culture do notsucceed to continue on to graduate school and become engineering professors.Within the existing literature on retention, we could not find a suitable survey instrument whichwould allow identification and correlation of contextual factors related to retention of students inengineering. Furthermore, no existing instruments were available that would adequately andrelevantly explore retention (and lack thereof) among diverse educational settings. In order tooczkok|g"qwt"wpfgtuvcpfkpi"qh"vjg"rtkoct{"kphnwgpegu"qp"uvwfgpvuÓ"ejqkeg"vq"uvc{"ykvj"qt"ngcxg"engineering programs, an instrument is needed that specifically ogcuwtgu"uvwfgpvuÓ"rgtegrvkqpu"of contextual factors. This article documents

Conference Session

Student Recruitment and Retention

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Anderson-Rowland, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

advanced engineering degree, in lieu of an MBA, law or medical degree, or a non-engineering M.S. • The decision to apply for admission to certain M.S. or Ph.D. programs at certain universities. • The decision to enroll in a specific program.Batson, Merrit, and Williams4 highlight the role of the faculty member in recruiting studentscurrently enrolled in B.S. programs in engineering and the sciences to be full-time graduatestudents. Many students never get to the first stage in the process of attending graduate school:they never consider graduate school! Many good engineering students never consider graduateschool for themselves because no one ever encourages them to consider graduate school.5Reichert and Absher6 believe the main

Conference Session

SPECIAL SESSION: Describing the Engineering Student Learning Experience Based on CAEE Findings: Part 2

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Turns, University of Washington; Jessica Yellin, University of Washington; Yi-Min Huang, University of Washington; Brook Sattler, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

that class, and what I tried last year to do, which I was much more satisfied with personally, though my evaluations didn't change that dramatically, is to focus the entire class on a particular topic.”At some point in their careers, all three described using teaching workshops as a source forgathering information. Nathan and Fay reported attending these workshops more often whenthey were at an earlier stage in their careers. Fay was more involved in workshops for femalefaculty in engineering on an ongoing basis. Ted enjoyed attending teaching workshops and statedthat he continues to attend teaching and creative teaching workshops. Ted explained one of hisreasons for participating in workshops, saying “But [Faculty member

Conference Session

SPECIAL SESSION: Describing the Engineering Student Learning Experience Based on CAEE Findings: Part 1

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Helen Chen, Stanford University; Krista Donaldson, Stanford University; Ozgur Eris, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Debbie Chachra, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Gary Lichtenstein, Stanford University; Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University; George Toye, Stanford University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

students’ undergraduate engineering experiences. Of this portfolio of methods, a keycomponent has been the survey and through the collective work of the APS, two instrumentshave emerged – the Persistence in Engineering (PIE) survey and the Academic Pathways ofPeople Learning Engineering Survey (APPLES).The Persistence in Engineering (PIE) survey was designed to identify and characterize thefundamental factors that influence students’ intentions to pursue an engineering degree over thecourse of their undergraduate career and upon graduation, to practice engineering as aprofession3, 4. First administered in Winter 2003, the PIE survey was deployed seven times from2003-2007 to approximately 160 students at four institutions (“Longitudinal Cohort

Conference Session

Student Engagement and Motivation

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dale Baker, Arizona State University; Stephen Krause, Arizona State University; Senay Purzer

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

individuals with an interest in technicalactivities have high self-efficacy in a variety of engineering subfields 6,7 .When Lent, Brown & Larkin 8 compared self-efficacy to other theories of career choice such asHolland’s 9 theory of fit between interests and occupational environment and Janis andMann’s 10 theory of decision making (considering consequences of alternatives) they found thatself-efficacy was a better predictor. Neither the theory of fit nor the theory of decision makingpredicted academic achievement or career perseverance. Bandura 1 summarized the role of self-efficacy and career choice as follows. “…efficacy is a robust contributor to career development.It predicts the scope of career options seriously considered, occupational

Conference Session

SPECIAL SESSION: Describing the Engineering Student Learning Experience Based on CAEE Findings: Part 1

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cynthia Atman, University of Washington; Lorraine Fleming, Howard University; Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University; Ronald Miller, Colorado School of Mines; Karl Smith, University of Minnesota; Reed Stevens, University of Washington; Ruth Streveler, Purdue University; Christine Loucks-Jaret, University of Washington; Dennis Lund, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

that examination is to see howwell students are able to make informed decisions to stay or go in their study of engineering.Students need a welcoming environment that gives them the information they need, and theyneed learning experiences that will enable them to build their engineering knowledge andidentity as an engineer with the skills needed to succeed in the global engineering work world.Our data show that often the undergraduate experience differs greatly for different groups suchas men, women, and underrepresented minorities. The engineering education community,whether policy-makers, faculty, or researchers, must not only recognize the wide variety ofstudent pathways to an engineering degree but also encourage and support these multiple

Conference Session

Design: Content and Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine B. Masters, Pennsylvania State University; Mieke Schuurman, Pennsylvania State University; Gül Okudan, Pennsylvania State University; Samuel T Hunter, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

, universities have responded to thesechallenges by adding more design content and introducing more open-ended design problemsinto their engineering curricula. Articles discussing the guarded success of these initiatives haveappeared in nearly every issue of the Journal of Engineering Education and the InternationalJournal of Engineering Education over the last 10 years. Yet the need to increase the creativepotential of graduates still persists.11 In fact, our preliminary results confirm this.Recognizing that other factors play a role as well, studies have documented (1) that peoplewhose personality types indicate high levels of creative potential are leaving engineering athigher rates than the student body average and (2) faculty teaching methods lean

Conference Session

SPECIAL SESSION: Describing the Engineering Student Learning Experience Based on CAEE Findings: Part 1

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mia Clark, Stanford University; Lorraine Fleming, Howard University; Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University; Cynthia Atman, University of Washington; Ronald Miller, Colorado School of Mines; Ruth Streveler, Purdue University; Reed Stevens, University of Washington; Karl Smith, University of Minnesota

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

for sharing their stories were favoredfor the open-ended, semi-structured interviews administered to the medium and high contactgroups. This approach was taken in order to produce a wide and rich array of personal stories.Another consideration when making group assignments was the researchers' judgment ofwhether the students were likely to stay in engineering (and the study itself) for the duration oftheir undergraduate careers. In order to achieve the goal of studying engineering studentpathways, it was important to have a large majority of participants graduate with an engineeringdegree.At the beginning of Year 2, 18 new participants were added as replacements for participants wholeft the study in the first year. All of these participants

Conference Session

Fostering and Assessing Effective Teaming

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Senay Purzer; Dale Baker, Arizona State University; Chell Roberts, Arizona State University; Stephen Krause, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

Excellence award in graduate research from the Mary Lou Fulton School of Education. Her creative research focuses on team learning and the role of self-efficacy on student achievement.Dale Baker, Arizona State University Dale R. Baker is a Professor of Science Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Arizona State University and was the Co-Editor of The Journal of Research in Science Teaching. She teaches courses in science curricula, teaching and learning, and assessment courses with an emphasis on constructivist theory and issues of equity. Her research focuses on issues of gender, science, and science teaching. She has won two awards for her research in these areas

Conference Session

STEM Pipeline: Pre-College to Post-Baccalaureate

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gillian Nicholls, University of Pittsburgh; Harvey Wolfe, University of Pittsburgh; Mary Besterfield-Sacre, University of Pittsburgh; Larry Shuman, University of Pittsburgh

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

degree-holders is a process that depends upon the students, educators, and themeans by which students are educated. The students are a vital portion of the raw materials tothis process and issues that affect their quantity and quality also affect the resulting number ofdegree-holders. Studying this process in order to identify significant factors that affect theproduction of degree-holders could provide a guide towards improving the process. Amethodology to test the effect of these factors could aid in designing an intervention program toencourage and assist more students in pursuing a college degree in STEM.Developing such a methodology starts with examining the work of education researchers whohave explored the motivations of students and the

Conference Session

Professional Skills and the Workplace

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Trevelyan, University of Western Australia

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

finish ones association (e.g. to finish presenting aTV show), whereas an engineer accepts ultimate and on-going responsibility for a documentwhen “signing-off”.Typical engineering science curricula provide basic methods which engineers may use inpractice, but much of the content provides little that engineers can directly apply in practice.While engineers may learn the subtle mathematical foundations of finite element analysis, therelatively few graduates that will actually operate finite element software for analysis willnever need to perform the mathematical derivations they had to learn for examinations. Thelink between education and practice is, therefore, largely indirect. By inspiring students toembrace challenging mathematical and