First-year Engineering Students’ Interpretation of Curiosity in the Entrepreneurial Mindset Through Reflective Practice

Courtney A. Lemasney; Hayley M. Shuster; Kaitlin Mallouk

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: ENT Division Technical Session: First-year Experiences
Tagged Divisions: First-Year Programs and Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34678
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34678
Download Count: 447

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Paper Authors

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Courtney A. Lemasney Rowan University

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Courtney LeMasney is a second-year undergraduate at Rowan University pursuing a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. During her time there, she has been awarded the Kupersmith and John D Cook III scholarship awards, and has expressed increased interest in fire protection and materials engineering.

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Hayley M. Shuster Rowan University

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Hayley Shuster is a sophomore engineering student pursuing a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rowan University. She also plans to complete a specialization in Biomedical Engineering in order to explore applications of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the development of medical devices like prosthetics.

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Kaitlin Mallouk Rowan University orcid.org/0000-0003-4367-1165

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Kaitlin Mallouk is an Assistant Professor of Experiential Engineering Education at Rowan University. Prior to beginning that role, she spent five years as an Instructor in the Mechanical Engineering and Experiential Engineering Education Departments at Rowan. Kaitlin has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and an MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois.

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Abstract

This study explores how first-year engineering students interpret Curiosity, one of the 3Cs of an Entrepreneurial Mindset, when they write about themselves as learners. In 2005, the Kern family established the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), a network of 45 schools dedicated to instituting an entrepreneurial mindset (EM) in undergraduate engineering students. From this EM, three main concepts were developed for success: Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value, otherwise known as the 3Cs. Previous research regarding EM and reflective practices in an undergraduate engineering curriculum has been performed, but rarely have researchers considered both simultaneously. Also, many studies have yet to research how students interpret an EM. This paper focuses on students’ writings about Curiosity, as it was chosen most often by students as the C that related to their reflections on themselves as learners.

During the fall semester at a mid-size, suburban, public university, undergraduate engineering students were prompted on a biweekly basis to reflect on their college experiences and to choose one of the 3Cs to accompany their reflection. The first prompt of the semester asked students to reflect on their previous experiences with school and themselves as learners, and then select one of the 3Cs of an EM and write about why they chose that C. The responses to the secondary question about the 3Cs were anonymized and then grouped by the C that students chose (e.g., all of the reflections for which the student chose Curiosity were analyzed together). Of the 3Cs, students most often associated their reflections with Curiosity (58%), but Connections and Creating Value were also present (25% and 17%, respectively). Once separated, the responses related to Curiosity were analyzed using in vivo, deductive coding by a team of researchers in order to determine how students conceptualize Curiosity in relation to a reflection about themselves as learners. Nine themes were identified and applied, with Motivation, Type of Learner, and Interest being the most frequently applied codes. A Cohen’s kappa of 0.627 indicates a moderate level of agreement between the researchers. The results from this paper provide insight into how students interpret Curiosity and can be used to develop materials about EM that might better resonate with first-year students. Future work will explore the remaining two “Cs”: Connections and Creating Value.

Citation
Format

Lemasney, C. A., & Shuster, H. M., & Mallouk, K. (2020, June), First-year Engineering Students’ Interpretation of Curiosity in the Entrepreneurial Mindset Through Reflective Practice Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34678

TY - CPAPER
AB - This study explores how first-year engineering students interpret Curiosity, one of the 3Cs of an Entrepreneurial Mindset, when they write about themselves as learners. In 2005, the Kern family established the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), a network of 45 schools dedicated to instituting an entrepreneurial mindset (EM) in undergraduate engineering students. From this EM, three main concepts were developed for success: Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value, otherwise known as the 3Cs. Previous research regarding EM and reflective practices in an undergraduate engineering curriculum has been performed, but rarely have researchers considered both simultaneously. Also, many studies have yet to research how students interpret an EM. This paper focuses on students’ writings about Curiosity, as it was chosen most often by students as the C that related to their reflections on themselves as learners.

During the fall semester at a mid-size, suburban, public university, undergraduate engineering students were prompted on a biweekly basis to reflect on their college experiences and to choose one of the 3Cs to accompany their reflection. The first prompt of the semester asked students to reflect on their previous experiences with school and themselves as learners, and then select one of the 3Cs of an EM and write about why they chose that C. The responses to the secondary question about the 3Cs were anonymized and then grouped by the C that students chose (e.g., all of the reflections for which the student chose Curiosity were analyzed together). Of the 3Cs, students most often associated their reflections with Curiosity (58%), but Connections and Creating Value were also present (25% and 17%, respectively). Once separated, the responses related to Curiosity were analyzed using in vivo, deductive coding by a team of researchers in order to determine how students conceptualize Curiosity in relation to a reflection about themselves as learners. Nine themes were identified and applied, with Motivation, Type of Learner, and Interest being the most frequently applied codes. A Cohen’s kappa of 0.627 indicates a moderate level of agreement between the researchers. The results from this paper provide insight into how students interpret Curiosity and can be used to develop materials about EM that might better resonate with first-year students. Future work will explore the remaining two “Cs”: Connections and Creating Value.

AU - Courtney A. Lemasney
AU - Hayley M. Shuster
AU - Kaitlin Mallouk
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - First-year Engineering Students’ Interpretation of Curiosity in the Entrepreneurial Mindset Through Reflective Practice
UR - https://peer.asee.org/34678
DO - 10.18260/1-2--34678
ER -