An official website of the United States government
Engineers play an important role in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations, which aim to provide a more sustainable environment for future generations. Through design thinking, creativity, and innovation, sustainable engineering solutions can be developed. Future engineers need to acquire skills in their engineering curriculum to feel equipped to address sustainable design challenges in their career. This paper focuses on the impact of perceived design thinking traits and active learning strategies in design courses to increase senior engineering students’ motivation to engage in energy sustainability in their career. A national survey was distributed to senior engineering students in the United States (n = 4364). The survey asked students about their motivation to engage in sustainable design, their perceived design thinking traits (i.e., integrative feedback, collaboration), and if they experienced active learning strategies in design courses (i.e., learning by doing). The results highlight that higher perceived design thinking ability increases senior engineering students’ interests in designing solutions related to energy sustainability. Active learning experiences positively influence senior engineering students’ interests in designing solutions related to energy sustainability. These findings show the importance of teaching design thinking in engineering courses to empower future engineers to address sustainable challenges through design and innovation.
more »
« less
Design thinking among first‐year and senior engineering students: A cross‐sectional, national study measuring perceived ability
Abstract BackgroundPrior researchers developed an instrument to measure perceived design thinking ability of first‐year students interested in engineering, and they validated the instrument through exploratory factor analysis. Purpose/HypothesisOur study uses the previously developed instrument to evaluate perceived design thinking ability of senior engineering students. We make a cross‐sectional comparison of this measure on a national scale. Design/MethodWe surveyed a national sample of senior engineering students in 2018 and conducted a cross‐sectional comparison with results from a 2012 national sample of first‐year students who were interested in declaring an engineering major. Two‐way analysis of variance tests compared average design thinking scores across sample groups. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to improve the design thinking instrument. ResultsFirst‐year students who intended to declare an engineering major score significantly higher (2.80) on the design thinking scale than senior engineering students (2.59) with a medium effect size of 0.4. The senior engineering sample performs significantly worse on the feedback seeking and experimentalism instrument items, but significantly better on the integrative thinking and collaboration items. We found no significant differences in perceived design thinking ability among engineering disciplines among senior students. ConclusionsFeedback seeking and experimentalism are traits that engineering educators should develop in their students to improve perceived design thinking ability. Incorporation of user‐centered design and divergent thinking in the engineering classroom are recommended as avenues to foster feedback seeking and experimentalism. We also offer recommendations to improve the design thinking instrument for future research.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10126168
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Engineering Education
- Volume:
- 109
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1069-4730
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 72-87
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract The research presented in this paper explores how engineering students cognitively manage concept generation and measures the effects of additional dimensions of sustainability on design cognition. Twelve first-year and eight senior engineering students generated solutions to 10 design problems. Half of the problems included additional dimensions of sustainability. The number of unique design solutions students developed and their neurocognitive activation were measured. Without additional requirements for sustainability, first-year students generated significantly more solutions than senior engineering students. First-year students recruited higher cortical activation in the brain region generally associated with cognitive flexibility, and divergent and convergent thinking. Senior engineering students recruited higher activation in the brain region generally associated with uncertainty processing and self-reflection. When additional dimensions of sustainability were present, first-year students produced fewer solutions. Senior engineering students generated a similar number of solutions. Senior engineering students required less cortical activation to generate a similar number of solutions. The varying patterns of cortical activation and different number of solutions between first-year and senior engineering students begin to highlight cognitive differences in how students manage and retrieve information in their brain during design. Students’ ability to manage complex requirements like sustainability may improve with education.more » « less
-
Abstract BackgroundEngineering students encounter high levels of stress, which may negatively impact their mental health. Nevertheless, engineering students who experience mental health distress are less likely than their peers to seek professional help, even when controlling for gender and race/ethnicity. PurposeWe examined beliefs that undergraduate engineering students have about barriers and facilitators to seeking professional help for their mental health. We also sought to identify cultural and systemic factors within and beyond engineering that might affect help‐seeking. Together, these beliefs influence students' sense of personal agency around seeking mental health care. MethodWe implemented a pragmatic qualitative design that incorporated the integrated behavioral model to investigate engineering students' (N = 33) professional mental health help‐seeking beliefs. We used thematic analysis to analyze help‐seeking beliefs and perceived barriers and facilitators that students described during interviews. ResultsWe identified four themes: Navigating the system impacts personal agency; sacrifices associated with help‐seeking act as a barrier; engineering culture acts as a barrier to help‐seeking; and student confidence in help‐seeking varies significantly. These themes portray the effect of perceived barriers and facilitators on students' personal agency for accessing mental health care. Our findings have implications for engineering departments and university counseling centers that want to minimize barriers to help‐seeking. ConclusionsEngineering stakeholders must improve access to professional help for engineering students. Implementing changes to normalize help‐seeking behaviors, enhance personal agency, and facilitate engagement with mental health resources will create better conditions for engineers. Further research is necessary to understand how other beliefs (e.g., attitudes, perceived norms) inform the relationships between student mental health, professional help seeking, and engineering culture.more » « less
-
National data indicates that engineering students are less likely than students in other academic disciplines to seek professional help for their mental health distress. Without professional intervention, mental health symptoms can worsen and become more challenging to treat. Therefore, this study uses a quantitative approach to investigate the beliefs that first-year engineering students hold about seeking mental health treatment and the influence of these beliefs on their intention to seek professional help. This study addresses the following research questions: 1) Which factors are most strongly associated with first-year engineering students’ intention to seek mental health treatment? 2) What beliefs about the outcomes of professional mental healthcare are most predictive of students’ intention to seek treatment? This study used a self-report survey instrument that employed the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) as an empirically supported theoretical framework to identify the beliefs that most accurately predict behavior. In December 2021, a survey was conducted in the first-year engineering program at a large public university with a predominantly White population (n = 452). The self-report survey instrument included measures of mental health help-seeking intention, attitude, perceived norm, personal agency, and outcome beliefs guided by the IBM. Respondents exhibited high scores on scales measuring their attitude towards seeking help, perceived control, and self-efficacy. This suggests that, on average, first-year engineering students had positive perceptions of their seeking help, felt in control of their decisions to seek help, and were confident in their ability to seek help. Students had lower scores for perceived norms, meaning they were less likely to believe that seeking help was supported by those who are important to them. Additionally, less than half of the students indicated they would intend to seek help if they experienced mental health distress. Students’ perception that others would expect them to seek help (i.e., their perceived norm injunctive) was the strongest predictor of intention to seek help, followed by their attitude toward seeking help. The specific outcome beliefs that were negatively correlated with intention to seek help were that seeking help would: 1) go against the expectations of the engineering community, 2) be a sign of weakness or an admission of defeat, and 3) result in poor treatment or discrimination from the mental health professional. Conversely, the outcome beliefs most positively correlated with intention were that seeking help would: 1) help me feel supported, 2) help me improve my coping skills, 3) make me feel better, 4) help me find a solution to my problem, and 5) help me gain a better understanding of my mental health concern. The findings of this study offer valuable insights into the beliefs of first-year engineering students towards seeking professional treatment for mental health concerns. These findings will inform the development of targeted interventions to improve help-seeking for mental health.more » « less
-
Abstract BackgroundUndergraduate engineering students experiencing distress are less likely than peers to ask for professional help. A population‐specific instrument to facilitate the identification of factors that influence mental healthcare utilization could guide development and testing of interventions to increase help seeking. PurposeWe used mixed methods guided by the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) to develop and evaluate the Undergraduate Engineering Mental Health Help‐Seeking Instrument (UE‐MH‐HSI). MethodFirst, we adapted existing measures of mental health help‐seeking intention and mechanisms (i.e., attitudes, perceived norm: injunctive, perceived norm: descriptive, personal agency: autonomy, personal agency: capacity). Second, we coded qualitative interviews (N = 33) to create population‐specific mental health help‐seeking belief measures (i.e., outcome beliefs, experiential beliefs, beliefs about others' expectations, beliefs about others' behavior, beliefs about barriers and facilitators). Third, we tested the psychometric properties using data from 596 undergraduate engineering students at a historically White, research‐focused institution in southern United States. ResultsPsychometric analyses indicated that (1) help‐seeking mechanism and intention measures demonstrated unidimensionality, internal consistency, construct replicability, and sufficient variability; (2) mechanism measures demonstrated criterion evidence of validity; and (3) most items within the belief measures demonstrated sufficient variability and convergent evidence of validity. ConclusionsThe UE‐MH‐HSI is an evidence‐based tool for investigating mental health help‐seeking factors and their relationship to help‐seeking behavior, well‐being, academic success, and engineering identity formation. Guidelines for use are provided.more » « less
