Exploring Student Responses to Utility-value Interventions in Engineering Statics

Lorenzo Laxamana Ruiz; Dominick Trageser; Benjamin David Lutz

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Motivation, Goal Orientation, Identity, and Career Aspirations
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37147
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/37147
Download Count: 501

Paper Authors

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Lorenzo Laxamana Ruiz California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo

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Lorenzo L. Ruiz is a 4th year Industrial Engineering student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Throughout his undergraduate career, he has completed internships in various fields being exposed to manufacturing operations, business systems, and continuous improvement environments. He is currently working towards a career in technical project management. He has served three years on the board of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers which helps connect industrial engineering students with industry leaders. For the last year, he has been working as an undergraduate researcher with the Critical Research in Engineering and Technology Education (CREATE) group exploring the nature of student motivation in engineering mechanics courses.

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Dominick Trageser California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

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Benjamin David Lutz California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo orcid.org/0000-0003-2637-0942

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Ben D. Lutz is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He is the leader of the Critical Research in Engineering and Technology Education (CREATE) group at Cal Poly. His research interests include critical pedagogies; efforts for diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering, engineering design theory and practice; conceptual change and understanding; and school-to-work transitions for new engineers. His current work explores a range of engineering education design contexts, including the role of power in brainstorming activities, epistemological and conceptual development of undergraduate learning assistants, as well as the experiences of recent engineering graduates as they navigate new organizational cultures.

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Abstract

Introductory engineering mechanics courses (e.g., statics, dynamics) are critical courses within a curriculum, and student performance in these courses can have a strong influence on future success. As a result, such courses must help students develop the motivation and interest needed to persist through their engineering education. One particularly promising tool for this development has been Utility Value Interventions (UVIs) in which students are given opportunities to express how course content is personally useful to them. But while UVIs have been used successfully in subjects such as biology and psychology, their use in engineering contexts remains limited to date. Further, while research has demonstrated the effectiveness of UVIs, the specific content of student responses to them remains relatively underexplored. To address these gaps, we implemented a series of UVIs in an engineering statics course. The purpose of this paper is to explore the specific content of student responses to UVIs and to examine how students make connections between their values and their learning in statics. In the fall 2020 term, we distributed UVIs in which we asked students to describe their own values and articulate personal connections to the course content. We used thematic analysis in combination with in-vivo and descriptive coding to characterize student responses and better understand how they make connections between their personal values and the content they learn in class. Three dominant themes emerged from student responses: 1) Self-improvement; 2) Empathy/Kindness and 3) Helping. These themes provide a better understanding of the kinds of values that are important to students and offer insight into their interest and motivation as it relates to learning statics. Given the abstract, decontextualized mode in which engineering sciences are typically taught, instructors can work to foster these personal connections and enhance student motivation and success in foundational areas of an engineering curriculum. In particular, our results point to the importance of connecting engineering content to students’ experiences beyond the statics classroom. To cultivate student interest, including discussions or assignments that integrate these values can benefit students who might be struggling to find personal relevance to their engineering curriculum.

Citation
Format

Ruiz, L. L., & Trageser, D., & Lutz, B. D. (2021, July), Exploring Student Responses to Utility-value Interventions in Engineering Statics Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37147

TY - CPAPER
AB - Introductory engineering mechanics courses (e.g., statics, dynamics) are critical courses within a curriculum, and student performance in these courses can have a strong influence on future success. As a result, such courses must help students develop the motivation and interest needed to persist through their engineering education. One particularly promising tool for this development has been Utility Value Interventions (UVIs) in which students are given opportunities to express how course content is personally useful to them. But while UVIs have been used successfully in subjects such as biology and psychology, their use in engineering contexts remains limited to date. Further, while research has demonstrated the effectiveness of UVIs, the specific content of student responses to them remains relatively underexplored. To address these gaps, we implemented a series of UVIs in an engineering statics course. The purpose of this paper is to explore the specific content of student responses to UVIs and to examine how students make connections between their values and their learning in statics. In the fall 2020 term, we distributed UVIs in which we asked students to describe their own values and articulate personal connections to the course content. We used thematic analysis in combination with in-vivo and descriptive coding to characterize student responses and better understand how they make connections between their personal values and the content they learn in class. Three dominant themes emerged from student responses: 1) Self-improvement; 2) Empathy/Kindness and 3) Helping. These themes provide a better understanding of the kinds of values that are important to students and offer insight into their interest and motivation as it relates to learning statics. Given the abstract, decontextualized mode in which engineering sciences are typically taught, instructors can work to foster these personal connections and enhance student motivation and success in foundational areas of an engineering curriculum. In particular, our results point to the importance of connecting engineering content to students’ experiences beyond the statics classroom. To cultivate student interest, including discussions or assignments that integrate these values can benefit students who might be struggling to find personal relevance to their engineering curriculum.
AU - Lorenzo Laxamana Ruiz
AU - Dominick Trageser
AU - Benjamin David Lutz
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Exploring Student Responses to Utility-value Interventions in Engineering Statics
UR - https://peer.asee.org/37147
DO - 10.18260/1-2--37147
ER -