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Session 3249

Attitude of Students Entering Engineering Technology Programs

Daniel Chen1, Albert Peng1, Daniel Jones2

Central Michigan University1/SUNY Institute of Technology2

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to learn more about the attitudes of engineering technology freshmen in terms of their educational backgrounds, orientations and experiences in ET programs. A survey was designed and conducted to carry out this study. It was used to measure attitudinal differences among engineering technology freshmen in the following areas:

• Career goals and elements for career decision. • Preparation in high school and college. • Study and work habits. • Difficult subjects for ET majors. • Confidence in ET knowledge/skills and elements for success.

Educators are always interested in learning more about their students’ attitudes. Many studies of this kind were conducted for engineering programs in the last five years1,2,3,4. The focuses of this study are primarily on the engineering technology students’ own ratings relative to different knowledge bases, skills and abilities and their levels of educational and occupational aspirations5,6. The results were used to compare the attitude of ET freshmen with those who prefer engineering over ET within the normative data in the academic backgrounds and achievements.

Engineering Technology Programs at CMU

The engineering technology programs at Central Michigan University (CMU) are designed to prepare students who aspire to careers in electronic, manufacturing, or mechanical areas7. Each major requires a minimum of 24 semester credits in mathematics and science, 21 credits in technology core that emphasizes hands-on laboratories, 21 credits in technology specialization that emphasizes engineering science and design, and 9 credits in technical electives that students can use to strengthen their technical backgrounds in one of the areas.

The students who wish to pursue one of the ET majors must be first admitted into the university. A typical student who receives a general admission would have a high-school GPA of 3.3 and ACT score of 22 (or a SAT score of 1030). Students usually sign up for one of the ET majors

Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Chen, D., & Peng, A., & Jones, D. (2004, June), Attitude Of Students Entering Engineering Technology Programs Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--12767