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Examining Students’ Perceptions of Interdisciplinarity Based on Gender and Disciplinary Affiliation

Abstract

The aim of the research proposed here is to contribute to theories about the development of undergraduate engineering students as interdisciplinary engineers, by examining engineering students’ perceptions of interdisciplinarity based on gender and disciplinary affiliation. The motivation for this study is due to the gap in the literature regarding the evaluation of interdisciplinary work and the increase in the number of interdisciplinary undergraduate engineering programs and courses. In addition, research indicates female students give greater attention to context in a design problem than their male counterparts, and therefore, could have different experiences in interdisciplinary programs, which are context-focused. Literature has also indicated potential barriers to a student’s interdisciplinary understanding exist due to the student’s affiliation with a particular engineering discipline.

An open-ended questionnaire was used to gain an understanding of the characteristics of engineering students from two majors at the start of the second year, which is the first semester of major coursework at the university in this study. Of the one hundred students in the study, twelve had elected to participate in an interdisciplinary program between the two majors. The questionnaire itself asks students to think about interdisciplinary and non-interdisciplinary engineering projects. Students’ responses to the questionnaire were analyzed using the open coding method of grounded theory to identify emerging themes or categories within the responses. The final coding scheme recognizes students’ differing perceptions of what constitutes an interdisciplinary collaboration, the purpose of using an interdisciplinary approach, and the process for establishing disciplinary grounding. The importance of team dynamics in engineering projects emerged from the responses, specifically in the discussion of communication, task delegation, and recruitment of team members. Additionally, while disciplinary affiliation appeared to influence students’ understanding of the purpose behind using an interdisciplinary approach, gender affected students’ examples of interdisciplinary collaborations. Participation in the interdisciplinary engineering program also was associated with providing the program as an example of an interdisciplinary collaboration. Beyond these areas, there were no significant differences in students’ responses based on gender or disciplinary affiliation. The small sample size of students could have contributed to the small number of significant differences between the independent variables. Overall, due to the open-ended nature of questions, it was not possible to indicate whether all of the students agreed or disagreed with the different perceptions. Therefore, these results were utilized within a larger mixed-methods study, designed to further explore these research questions.

Introduction

In the 2009-2010 academic year, undergraduate engineering students from across the country will specialize in green engineering, nanobiotechnology, and pharmaceutical engineering or enter majors such as nanosystems engineering and energy engineering.1,2 The objectives of these programs focus on imparting graduates with the abilities to apply tools and skills from multiple

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Coso, A., & Bailey, R. (2010, June), Examining Students’ Perceptions Of Interdisciplinarity Based On Gender And Disciplinary Affiliation Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16696