Does engagement in high impact practices such as technical internships and undergraduate
research influence engineering students’ career decisions and future plans? And how is learning
that comes from these high impact practices related to “school learning”? These high impact
educational practices have been shown to increase the rates of student engagement and retention
in higher education. While access to and participation in these activities is often unsystematic
across various institutions, these practices have been shown to benefit college students with
diverse backgrounds and learner qualities. This paper establishes a context for understanding the
characteristics and attitudes of students who participate in internships and undergraduate
research by drawing from analyses of the first administration of the Engineering Majors Survey
(EMS), a longitudinal study designed to examine engineering students’ career objectives related
to creativity and innovation, and the experiences and attitudes that might influence those goals.
In addition, using interview data from product development interns at a single engineering firm,
we add insights into the specific skills that interns identify as learning in their internship and
suggest connections between school-and-work learning. The more general picture of the impact
of internship and research experiences (from the EMS), complemented with a “deep dive” into
the learning that happens in internship experiences (from the interviews) provides a solid starting
point for future exploration of how high impact practices such as internships and research
experiences might be better integrated into a student’s educational development.
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Exploring How Engineering Internships and Undergraduate Research Experiences Inform and Influence College Students’ Career Decisions and Future Plans.
Does engagement in high impact practices such as technical internships and undergraduate research influence engineering students’ career decisions and future plans? And how is learning that comes from these high impact practices related to “school learning”? These high impact educational practices have been shown to increase the rates of student engagement and retention in higher education. While access to and participation in these activities is often unsystematic across various institutions, these practices have been shown to benefit college students with diverse backgrounds and learner qualities. This paper establishes a context for understanding the characteristics and attitudes of students who participate in internships and undergraduate research by drawing from analyses of the first administration of the Engineering Majors Survey (EMS), a longitudinal study designed to examine engineering students’ career objectives related to creativity and innovation, and the experiences and attitudes that might influence those goals. In addition, using interview data from product development interns at a single engineering firm, we add insights into the specific skills that interns identify as learning in their internship and suggest connections between school-and-work learning. The more general picture of the impact of internship and research experiences (from the EMS), complemented with a “deep dive” into the learning that happens in internship experiences (from the interviews) provides a solid starting point for future exploration of how high impact practices such as internships and research experiences might be better integrated into a student’s educational development.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1636442
- PAR ID:
- 10076373
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, June 24-27, 2018. Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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