Conference Session

Trends in Accreditation and Assessment

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alan Cheville, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

currently interested in engineering design education, engineering education policy, and the philosophy of engineering education. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 A Philosophical Perspective on ABET's Proposed Changes to Criterion 3 and Criterion 5This paper critiques the proposed changes to the ABET criteria through the lens of thephilosophical system outlined in 20th Century Scottish philosopher John Macmurray’s GiffordLectures. Changes to ABET criteria reflect beliefs about the purpose of education, andphilosophy enables a dialog about underlying beliefs and assumptions; thus this analysis isintended to provoke discussion of alternate forms and processes of

Conference Session

Exploring Student Affairs, Identities, and the Professional Persona

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Najla Mouchrek, Virginia Tech ; Liesl M Baum, Virginia Tech; Lisa D. McNair, Virginia Tech

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

interests include interdisciplinary collaboration, design education, communication studies, identity theory and reflective practice. Projects supported by the National Science Foundation include exploring disciplines as cultures, interdisciplinary pedagogy for pervasive computing design; writing across the curriculum in Statics courses; as well as a CAREER award to explore the use of e-portfolios to promote professional identity and reflective practice. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 Student Persistence Through Uncertainty Toward Successful Creative PracticeAbstract: To increase creative practice among students in engineering and other

Conference Session

Assessing Literacies in Engineering Education

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Patricia R Backer, San Jose State University; Laura E Sullivan-Green, San Jose State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

justice in the United States (750-1250 words).  ENGR 195A Reflection Paper 2: In his essay, Dyson gives some historical examples of technological innovations that he claims have increased social justice. Considering the technological innovations in your discipline, please describe another example and indicate how it has increased social justice in the U.S. (250- 500 words)  Aerospace Engr 171A – Reflection Paper 3 (250-500 words): Consider the technological innovations in aerospace engineering in general and aircraft design in particular, describe a historical example and indicate how it has increased social justice in the U.S. and the world.  Aerospace Engr 172A – Reflection Paper 3 (250-500 words

Conference Session

Research on Diversification, Inclusion, and Empathy II

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joachim Walther, University of Georgia; Shari E. Miller, University of Georgia; Nicola W. Sochacka, University of Georgia; Michael Alvin Brewer jr., University of Georgia

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Paper ID #16055Fostering Empathy in an Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering CourseDr. Joachim Walther, University of Georgia Dr. Joachim Walther is an associate professor of engineering education research at the University of Georgia (UGA). He is a director of the Collaborative Lounge for Understanding Society and Technol- ogy through Educational Research (CLUSTER), an interdisciplinary research group with members from engineering, art, educational psychology and social work. His research interests range from the role of em- pathy in engineering students’ professional formation, the role of reflection in engineering

Conference Session

Trends in Accreditation and Assessment

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rebecca A. Bates, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Cheryl Allendoerfer, University of Washington; Ronald R. Ulseth, Itasca Community College; Bart M. Johnson, Itasca Community College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

andthe process of students growing and developing into members of the community, whether definedas the academic or professional community.The context of this paper and its reflection on the use of outcomes to design and operate anengineering program is the proposal for significant changes in the ABET criteria. Discussionsamongst the ASEE community have included webinars, a virtual conference, and a town hallmeeting at the 2016 ASEE conference.4 The goal of this paper is to provide an example of howoutcomes have been used as a driver and motivator for innovative change in engineeringeducation.ValuesThe outcomes currently defined in Criterion 3 are a clear statement of the values the broadengineering community holds, such as use of foundational

Conference Session

Exploring Student Affairs, Identities, and the Professional Persona

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jillian Seniuk Cicek, University of Manitoba; Sandra Ingram, University of Manitoba; Marcia R. Friesen, University of Manitoba

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

held up as an exemplar demonstrating the difficulties inherent in assessingthe graduate attributes, particularly the ones that reflect the professional or workplace skills ofengineers. Some consider lifelong learning an outcome best measured a priori: in other words, itis cogitated as an aptitude that students will best epitomize once they are graduated and workingas professional engineers. However, the knowledge, skills, behaviours, attitudes and values thatengender lifelong learning are indeed present in our students, and one of the most effective waysto activate and observe this attribute is to engage students in discussions regarding theirexperiences and perceptions of their learning. This paper presents the findings from a

Conference Session

Social Responsibility and Social Justice II: From Classroom to Community

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna M. Riley, Virginia Tech; Jonathan Grunert, Virginia Tech; Yousef Jalali, Virginia Tech; Stephanie G. Adams, Old Dominion University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

engineeringexpertise as unique. A series of short essays encourage students to analyze engineering as aprofession and consider their own roles as citizen engineers with the power to intervene as non-experts in engineering activities that impact society.In this first iteration of the course, one of the authors served as a participant-observer andethnographer focused on student learning. The observer witnessed student engagement withcourse topics and with one another, and interviewed all the students in the class (n=5)individually. Using the observer’s analysis of his observation notes and interview responses, andusing the instructors’ analysis of student work and course feedback, we reflect on the outcomesof this first iteration of the course and consider

Conference Session

Infusing Engineering with Art (and Vice Versa)

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anne-marie Nickel, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Jennifer Kelso Farrell, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Alicia Domack, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Synchronistic presentations to other classCurrent ApproachWithin each course, the interdisciplinary approach included four parts: a brief introduction to theother field; science fiction reading assignments that include the theme of nanotechnology’simpact on society; a project that involves synchronistic interaction of the students from eachclass where the students teach the other students about principles from their class and writtenstudent reflections about their experience in presenting to the other class.Table 2. Key interdisciplinary activities included in the courses. Key Interdisciplinary Activities When Activity Activity Description (Week of 10 week course) Week 1-2 Brief • Nanotechnology professor

Conference Session

Social Responsibility and Social Justice I: Pedagogical Perspectives

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jon A. Leydens, Colorado School of Mines; Juan C. Lucena, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

general, we interpreted student engagement with and case-study application of the E4SJcriteria as an indication students not only understood the criteria, but could also analyze andevaluate them well enough to argue for or against their inclusion/exclusion in the process ofdeciding which criteria were the most or least effectively engaged. Furthermore, student use andevaluation of the criteria to an actual engineering case study constitutes a form of sociotechnicalapplication, wherein students analyzed and reflected on the complex interplays of the social andthe technical. Overall, the E4SJ criteria evaluation process via case studies provided studentswith concrete, specific opportunities to evaluate the utility of the criteria and to understand

Conference Session

Social Responsibility and Social Justice I: Pedagogical Perspectives

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jonathan Beever, University of Central Florida; Andrew O. Brightman, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

principlist framework opensspace for engineers to more richly explore the complexity of both direct and indirect socialimpacts resulting from their work. Thus, in this paper we argue that such a principle-basedapproach applied reflectively in the context of engineering design, is an important component ofa response to these challenges of communication competence. The specification and balancing ofthe four principles that is essential to this principlist approach requires thinking together inspecific contexts about the perspectives and potential social and ethical concerns of diversestakeholders, ranging from corporations to culturally-diverse individuals, to animals and theenvironment. Developing an answer to the question of appropriate pedagogy

Conference Session

Communication as Performance

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lydia Wilkinson, University of Toronto

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

frequently and explicitly refer to other FASEcourses and events. While our students may be evolving as performers, they are doing so againstthe familiar backdrop of their engineering degree and identities. This intersection of engineer andperformer has long been a part of the course experience and of particular interest to the courseinstructors, as we observe our students adapting techniques from both spheres as they developnew and innovative ways to tackle the challenges of theatrical development and performance.Intrigued by these moments of disciplinary transfer, we created a course assignment, thePerforming Engineer, to encourage our students to reflect upon the ways that they bring togetherand transfer skills between the engineering and theatre

Conference Session

A Liberal Education Certified: A Panel on Integrating Liberal Education in a Large, Research-based Institution

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lydia Wilkinson, University of Toronto; Alan Chong, University of Toronto; Deborah Tihanyi, University of Toronto; Penny Kinnear, University of Toronto; Robert Irish, University of Toronto; Ken Tallman, University of Toronto

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Science on Stage, Science and Technology in the Popular Media, Language andPower, Engineering and Science in the Arts, Language and Meaning, and The Power of Story--aswell as the opportunity to earn a Certificate in Communication. Awarded to students whocomplete three of these courses, the Certificate reflects the FASE’s success in promoting andrewarding student engagement in educational opportunities outside the core curriculum.In this panel of the Associate Professors, Teaching Stream, and Lecturers who teach thesecourses, we explain our context at a top-flight research university, before discussing our coursesand assessing their success in providing a liberal education for our students. A discussion periodwill allow us to share insights into

Conference Session

Communication Across the Divisions I

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathryn A. Neeley, University of Virginia; Judith Shaul Norback, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

 &  Engineering   Literacy/Philosophy  of  Engineering  These numbers provide evidence of a common interest in engineering communication, but theyalso reflect the fragmentation of the scholarly conversation. This paper reports on work inprogress toward the goal of establishing some coherence in the conversation while at the sametime highlighting the diversity of approaches and range of expertise that are relevant toresearching and teaching engineering communication. We have begun a qualitative analysisusing papers presented at the 2015 annual conference as our evidence base. Here we provide aquantitative overview of the papers, identify trends that we have observed in the papers

Conference Session

Social Responsibility and Social Justice II: From Classroom to Community

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jessica Mary Smith, Colorado School of Mines; Carrie J. McClelland P.E., Colorado School of Mines; Nicole M. Smith, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

prompt at the beginning and end of the module.The prompt asked students to respond to questions about whether and how corporations hadresponsibilities to society and what roles engineers fill in fulfilling those responsibilities. Thepreliminary essay was an in-class writing assignment that students completed for an attendancequiz. After over two weeks of activities, the post-essay was assigned as one of a number ofprompts in a reflective exercise. To prevent students from using the pre-write to complete thepost-essay assignment, the pre-writes were not handed back until after the post-write was turnedin. A comparison of the writings showed that the pre-and post-writes were unique for allparticipants.For this study, the initial and final essays

Conference Session

Research on Diversification, Inclusion, and Empathy II

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Justin L Hess, Purdue University - West Lafayette; Nicholas D. Fila, Purdue University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

numerous transitional points. In developmentalmodels from the field of psychology, empathy tends to be a peripheral but important component.For example, many of these models emphasize the individual’s cognitive growth as a parallelcomponent to their social development (e.g., Hoffman19, Kohlberg34). Other models integrate allaspects of development into a single unifying staged theory, be it their cognitive/ethicaldevelopment (e.g., Perry35) or their reflective judgement (e.g., King and Kitchener36).Stage models tend to include lower stages or tiers of development that the individual attains inearly adolescence. For example, Hoffman developed a stage model of empathic development, butthis model focused solely on the concept of empathic distress

Conference Session

Exploring Student Affairs, Identities, and the Professional Persona

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alexandra Vinson, Northwestern University; Reed Stevens, Northwestern University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

theanalysis we focus on how these engineers reflect on their fit in each job and how they account fortheir decision to pursue a second term of internship or co-op at an organization or, alternately,how they decided not to return. We highlight the cases of three engineers who represent twodifferent experiences of young engineers: trying lots of internships as a student and finding agood fit before graduation versus trying one internship as a student and perceiving oneself as apoor fit for one’s job after graduation. We therefore use this analysis to examine the relationshipbetween undergraduate work experience, perceived fit in a work environment, andattrition/persistence in engineering.Analyses in this area are important to conduct because there is a

Conference Session

Communication Across the Divisions I

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jessie Stickgold-Sarah, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

haveworked through the steps of decoding the disciplines in conversation with technical-expertfaculty.e.g., 32 However, professional communication in “Preparation for Undergraduate Research”is taught by communication instructors – not disciplinary experts – and contains far too manysub-fields – and thus far too many bottlenecks – to manage this model as originally designed.Instead we have developed a different framework - inspired by “Decoding the Disciplines,” buttheoretically informed by RGS - upon which students reflect on their own aspiring-to-expertdomain knowledge, in order to make the rhetorical genre knowledge of their discipline explicit.B. Stage I: Identifying and Communicating ContributionsIn the fall semester, major deliverables (i.e

Conference Session

Assessing Literacies in Engineering Education

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Xiaofeng Tang, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Qin Zhu, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Haishao Pang, Beijing Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

and American educators.Section two examines some institutional, curricular, and instructional strategies for educatingwell-rounded engineers in both countries. In this section, we briefly introduce the programs ofgeneral education in two Chinese engineering universities and compare them with threeAmerican engineering programs. Section three reflects upon the challenges faced by educators inChina and the U.S. in their attempt to bring together engineering and the liberal arts. Thesechallenges, in our analysis, reflect a more common instrumental attitude that works against theexpansion of professionals’ non-technical learning. To counteract this narrow and instrumentalview, we suggest a broader approach, one that fully appreciates the critical

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julia M. Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Bernadette Longo, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Dave M. Kmiec, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

wereproduced as part the project from start to finish.One of the inherent difficulties of the use of workplace documents is clearly illustrated in Figures 1and 2. It would be possible to bring these documents to an engineering communication class, or asoftware engineering class, but without Dr. Mohan’s verbal narration, it is possible that neitherinstructor nor students would have an idea of the important context that surrounds the documents.For instance, Figure 1 shows the original email that initiated the software project. The purpose of thedocument is explicit in the first sentence: “to outline a small data acquisition project for Amadeus.”In his narration, however, Dr. Mohan reflects on the long-standing and positive relationship betweenhis

Conference Session

Research on Diversification, Inclusion, and Empathy I

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George D. Catalano, Binghamton University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

patience & endurance Earth (Below) Do no harm to the Earth and all creatures Table 1. The Four Directions and Brief Descriptions of the Characteristics associated with the Lakota Medicine WheelMorally Deep Design MethodologyAn engineering design algorithm based on a morally deep world view has been offeredpreviously by the author.7 The design algorithm is based on the following four steps: • Via Positiva. The problem is identified, fully accepted and broken down into its various components using the vast array of creative and critical thinking techniques which engineers possess. What is to be solved? For whom is it to be solved? • Via Negativa. Reflection on

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Emre Selvi, Jacksonville University; Sandra Soto-Cabán, Muskingum University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

problem.Iterations and revisions of the student work are required. Each update report requires the teams tobuild upon the content included in their initial design plan. The final report requires the teams tobuild upon the midterm report by including a results section that provides information for each ofthe steps included in the design plan. The process of returning to the same core of informationfor each of the reports and presentations encouraged the students to reflect upon the feedbackand evaluation given on the previous report and address problematic issues in the current reportor presentation they were working on. This allows students to build on learning as they applytheir engineering skills to solve the problem. Besides writing reports, students

Conference Session

Communication as Performance

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Caitlin Donahue Wylie, University of Virginia; Kathryn A. Neeley, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

.”The approach to student engagement that we describe here—like many others developed bySTS/HSS professors teaching engineering students—was developed intuitively by author Wyliewhen she was confronted by an all-too-familiar situation: facing a lot of open laptops and verylittle class preparation or participation in an introductory STS lecture class of STEM studentswho were mostly freshmen, many first-generation college students, and many English languagelearners. In response to the students’ inability or unwillingness to read the assigned sources, she      began asking them to interpret cartoons during class that reflected issues relevant to the day’slecture

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nancy B. Barr, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

communication skills. These conversations led to a better understanding of what studentsneeded to master in each course as they advanced through the curriculum, which then providedinsight into ways the GTAs could help their students achieve these learning goals. The team alsodeveloped a comprehensive lab report guidelines document for use in all three courses. Theguidelines provided information on formatting, composing the type of content expected in eachsection of the report, and creating figures and tables, as well as other technical writing tips. Theteam also created a rubric, mapped to the guidelines, to help bring consistency to grading. Whilejust one set of guidelines applied for all the labs, the rubric could be customized to reflect

Conference Session

Research on Diversification, Inclusion, and Empathy II

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nicholas D. Fila, Purdue University; Justin L Hess, Indiana University - Purdue University, Indianapolis

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

other common experiences that link thestudents to the phenomenon being studied. Thus, we theorize that the discussions of empathypresented in this study directly reflect the phenomenon of empathy as it is developed, interpreted,and experienced in the unique context of engineering education by engineering students.From a social constructionist perspective, meaning is developed and conveyed throughlanguage27. Thus, in this study, we pay particular attention to language as a lens to explore thephenomenon of empathy in the social world of engineering students. As such, this study focuseson using qualitative interview data to provide a lens into the students’ social world. Oneimplication of this focus was that we did not provide an explicit

Conference Session

Social Responsibility and Social Justice I: Pedagogical Perspectives

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Devin R. Berg, University of Wisconsin, Stout; Tina Lee, University of Wisconsin, Stout

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

stand behind morals and ethics (n=2) • You must take into consideration all who might be effected by your work (n=2)From these responses we can see that some students were less influenced by the course when itcame to changing their outlook. It is unclear whether the lack of influence reflects that somestudents came into the course already sharing the viewpoint presented and their views did notchange for that reason or whether some inherently disagreed with the notions communicated inthis course and the course did not change their minds. These results may also indicate that greaterrepetition of these messages is necessary before the ideas take hold and they begin to mold moreclosely held beliefs such as their world views. Some examples of

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah Liggett, Louisiana State University; Boz Bowles, Louisiana State University; Annemarie Galeucia, Louisiana State University; Warren R Hull Sr. P.E., Louisiana State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

CxCprogram for students as well as to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, that we have exploredusing focus groups, a qualitative assessment method, somewhat atypical in the engineeringcommunity. At this stage in CxC’s development we opted for focus groups because we believedthat a more in-depth and open-ended approach to assessment lends itself to expanding ourcomprehensive reflection of the program to-date. More to the point, we were curious about theunique experiences of our students and wanted to know how they compared to previousassessments we’d performed about CxC.Key Findings of Previous AssessmentsFrom the beginning of the CxC program in the College of Engineering, faculty and CxC staffhave sought feedback on how to effectively implement

Conference Session

Social Responsibility and Social Justice II: From Classroom to Community

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Katz, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

effects of programmatic decisions on students.Those effects are then parlayed into a broader conversation about engineering education as awhole.This paper is an invitation to envision a more humanistic alternative to the unrestrained freemarket ideologies marshalling the state of affairs within engineering education. These sameideologies are steering the state of affairs elsewhere in society, but here we examine engineeringeducation as the local space that we occupy intellectually, physically, emotionally,epistemologically, and ontologically. Engineering education is a local reflection of a globalphenomenon. The paper begins with a brief contextual history of neoliberalism in highereducation before focusing on engineering education at Tulane. It

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Natascha Trellinger Buswell, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Brent K Jesiek, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Cary Troy, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Josh Boyd, Purdue University; Rebecca R Essig, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

associated with – incorporating writing in engineering classes. The finalparts of the survey ask respondents to identify specific resources that might help them expandinclusion of writing in their courses, followed by a series of demographic questions to bettercharacterize the participant population. Most generally, the survey results suggest that facultyrecognize the need for and importance of writing in engineering, which is in part reflected intheir own courses. However, they continue to perceive challenges associated with includingwriting in engineering courses, with a particular emphasis on various resource constraints. Thepaper concludes with a brief overview of next steps, including plans for developing supportingresources for faculty and

Conference Session

Research on Diversification, Inclusion, and Empathy I

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lauren D. Thomas, University of Washington; Danielle L. Watt, Center for Chemistry at the Space Time Limit (CaSTL Center); Kelly J. Cross, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Jeremy Alexis Magruder, University of Florida; Chanel Renee Easley, Techbridge; Yael-Alexandra Jackie Monereau, University of Tampa; Makita R. Phillips; Arielle M. Benjamin

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

 issues, through conversation, sharing, and inquiry [10].   The participants in this study acted as co­researchers who thoughtfully reflected on their own experiences in navigating and completing at least one STEM degree and working in STEM related areas. There are many approaches to using narrative in research, but a personal narrative, can also be considered autoethnography. Narrative in research is generally focused on producing some version of text, whether spoken or written, to represent the sole data source for another party to evaluate and assess the  meaning. Autoethnography, however, prompts the narrator to do the work of connecting their own story to theory, in order to explain a larger social reality. In this study, the narrative

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephanie Pulford, Auburn University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

choices; so when we see students whoare not motivated to learn, a reasonable first hypothesis is that their task value motivation is low.This is a hypothesis shared by much of the engineering community. A very commonpresumption regarding students’ low learning motivation is that they simply don’t know thatengineers have use for writing skills, that “real” engineers write; and if only they did, surely theywould apply themselves in their writing classes. We can see some fleeting evidence of this kindof unmotivated student in qualitative data. For example, in case studies and interviewsengineering students have reported that they don’t see writing as important 1, or they viewwriting as incidental to the real work of engineering, reflecting cultural