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Work In Progress: Evaluating the Cultural Context of Engineering and Engineering-Related Concept Inventory Assessment Items

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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

Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY) Technical Session 2

Tagged Divisions

Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44246

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44246

Download Count

187

Paper Authors

biography

Shauna N. Adams Purdue University, West Lafayette

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Shauna is currently a PhD student in Engineering Education at Purdue University. She previously worked for 10 years as a Systems Surety Engineer and 15 years as a coordinator/advisor of various pre-college engineering programs. Shauna earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and her MS in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University. Her research interest includes understanding the impact of community-based engineering programs on student major choice for underrepresented groups in engineering, with a specific focus on Black/African American youth and inclusive program evaluation methods. Shauna is engaged in Purdue’s Engineering Education Graduate Student Association and Black Graduate Student Association.

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biography

Kerrie A. Douglas Purdue University, West Lafayette Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2693-5272

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Dr. Douglas is an Associate Professor in the Purdue School of Engineering Education. Her research is focused on improving methods of assessment in engineering learning environments and supporting engineering students.

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biography

Philip Goldberg Purdue University, West Lafayette

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Philip Goldberg is a First Year Engineering undergraduate student at Purdue University looking to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. He is a part of the First Time Researcher program at Purdue, currently completing research in the School of Engineering Education and Science and Ethics of Educational Data lab under Dr. Kerrie Douglas.

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Abstract

There is very little understood about how the context of engineering assessment questions can serve to unnecessarily confuse, distract, or indirectly communicate who belongs (and who does not) in engineering classrooms. Globally concept inventories are used to assess students’ conceptual understanding of specific subject areas and study the effectiveness of curriculum efforts targeted toward increasing students’ conceptual understanding of different topics using real word contexts. Using content analysis, researchers reviewed three concept inventories and the sociocultural norms and lived experiences of the represented contexts, which have implications for fairness. The team analyzed and identified the context of over 90 concept inventory questions and created four major categories of questions where different groups of participants may react to the context differently or have difficulty answering the question. The categories were access to technology, culturally sensitive, insider knowledge, and assumed experiences. The context of the question can be essential to answering the question so a lack of understanding of the context could prevent students from accurately answering the question, or the context of the question is not essential to answering the question, but the context can be a distraction. Engineering undergraduate students consist of several racial, ethnic, and cultural groups made up of both domestic and international students. This research team seeks to encourage concept inventory authors to assess the context of the proposed concept inventory items for sociocultural and racial/ethnic awareness.

Adams, S. N., & Douglas, K. A., & Goldberg, P. (2023, June), Work In Progress: Evaluating the Cultural Context of Engineering and Engineering-Related Concept Inventory Assessment Items Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44246

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