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Work in Progress: Emotional Configurations in Undergraduate Engineering Education

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Work-in-Progress Session: Supporting Students To, Through, and Beyond Transitions

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44228

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44228

Download Count

304

Paper Authors

biography

Emily Kostolansky Tufts University

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Emily Kostolansky is a master's student in mechanical engineering at Tufts University. Her research interests in engineering education include undergraduate engineering education and emotions in engineering.

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biography

Kristen B Wendell Tufts University

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Kristen Wendell is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Adjunct Associate Professor of Education at Tufts University. Her research efforts at at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach focus on supporting discourse and design practi

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biography

Nicole Alexandra Batrouny Tufts University

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Nicole Batrouny is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Tufts University. Her engineering education research interests include upper elementary engineering education, integrated science and engineering, collaboration in engineering, and decision making.

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Abstract

This work in progress paper explores the ways in which emotions and learning intersect in engineering education contexts as self-reported by undergraduate students. Recent literature in the learning sciences positions affect and motivation as epistemic. In other words, the learning that undergraduate students in engineering education engage in is an inherently emotional, or affective, process. In this study, we designed a semi-structured interview protocol to explore undergraduate students’ perceptions of emotion in their engineering education. We interviewed twenty-one mechanical and human factors engineering undergraduate students at a private university in the northeastern United States, transcribed interview recordings and conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of interview data to address the research question, In what ways do emotions and learning intersect within engineering education contexts? Our data analysis characterizes a range of emotional configurations that undergraduate students experience in four contexts specific to their engineering education. Drawing from the emotion in/as sociocultural practice perspective, we conceptualize emotional configurations as the intersection between emotion, sense-making, and sociocultural practices. These findings begin to demonstrate that learning to process emotions is an integral part of learning to do engineering and shapes future learning opportunities within engineering education. These findings have implications for understanding how undergraduate students perceive the role of emotions in their engineering education and how educators can support undergraduate students as they experience, express, and regulate these emotions. Future work will explore how emotional configurations differ across contexts, grade levels, and participant identities within engineering education.

Kostolansky, E., & Wendell, K. B., & Batrouny, N. A. (2023, June), Work in Progress: Emotional Configurations in Undergraduate Engineering Education Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44228

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