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1. Empathic approaches in engineering capstone design projects: student beliefs and reported behaviour

   https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2021.1927989  

   Guanes, Giselle; Wang, Linjue; Delaine, David A.; Dringenberg, Emily (May 2021, European Journal of Engineering Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Engineering design decisions have non-trivial implications, and empathic approaches are one way that engineers can understand and translate the perspectives of diverse stakeholders. Prior literature demonstrates that students must develop empathic skills and beliefs that these skills are important to embody empathic approaches in meaningful ways. However, we have limited understanding of the relationship between students’ beliefs about the value of empathy in engineering decision making and how they describe their reported use of empathic approaches. We collected qualitative data through interviews with ten undergraduate engineering students in capstone design. We found that our participants espoused a belief that empathic approaches are valuable in engineering design decisions. However, while students considered diverse perspectives when describing how they made design decisions, their reported behaviour during design decisions did not demonstrate translation of their empathic understanding. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations to educators and researchers. 

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2. Undergraduate students’ beliefs about diverse approaches to making engineering design decisions: Exploring change during a capstone course

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-022-09802-w  

   Leonard, Alexia; Guanes, Giselle; Dringenberg, Emily (January 2023, International Journal of Technology and Design Education)

   Abstract Well-structured, de-contextualized problems that can be solved using solely technical approaches remain a large component of the engineering education curriculum. As a result, students may mistakenly believe that all engineering work can be done the same way—without the use of other approaches. Capstone design courses are an established way of exposing undergraduate students to ill-structured design tasks that more realistically reflect engineering practice. Yet, little is known about the influence of their capstone design experiences on their beliefs about how engineering design decisions are made. Our study compared students’ beliefs about four diverse approaches (technical, empathic, guess-based, and experience-based) to making engineering design decisions at the start of their capstone to their beliefs held at the end of their capstone. We conducted and analyzed qualitative transcripts from one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with 17 capstone students. We found little evidence that students’ experience in capstone courses changed their beliefs about diverse approaches to making engineering design decisions. The minimal change that we did find in students’ beliefs was primarily about guess-based approaches, and that change was not uniform amongst the students who did demonstrate change. Our findings point to the resiliency of students’ beliefs about approaches to design decisions throughout an engineering capstone design experience. Therefore, we recommend instructors foster reflexivity within their classrooms to disrupt these limited, normative beliefs about the approaches needed to make engineering design decisions. 

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3. Challenges in a Freshman General Education Class

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--34268  

   Maher, Michelle; O'Shea, Kathleen; Marszalek, Jacob; Cairns, Darran (June 2020, 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   How undergraduates are introduced to the discipline of engineering at the college level can have long-term educational and professional implications, including influencing decisions to pursue or leave engineering majors and validating beliefs about the purpose of engineering in society. Classroom lectures have been traditionally used within introductory engineering courses as they can transmit large amounts of content. However, they are generally less effective in helping undergraduates engage with and apply content. In recognition of this, learner-centered approaches are increasingly being used in introductory engineering classes. Our overarching purpose in this paper was to describe the use of the design process in an introductory engineering course that enrolled close to two hundred students, most of whom were in their first year in college. As we argued, these are the students who might most benefit from design process participation. We found that in general, the design process was transferable to this educational context. Most students seemed far more engaged than students in previous course offerings that had been delivered in a traditional format. Notably, students reported that in addition to learning course content, they learned creativity, persistence, problem-solving skills, leadership skills, and teamwork skills. However, perhaps the main contribution of engaging freshmen and other early-stage students in the design process was in fostering in them a greater understanding of the impact that engineers can have on society. 

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4. Undergraduate students' espoused beliefs about different approaches to engineering design decisions

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20544  

   Guanes, Giselle; Leonard, Alexia; Dringenberg, Emily (July 2023, Journal of Engineering Education)

   Abstract BackgroundEngineers are socialized to value rational approaches to problem solving. A lack of awareness of how engineers use different decision‐making approaches is problematic because it perpetuates the ongoing development of inequitable engineering designs and contributes to a lack of inclusion in the field. Although researchers have explored how engineering students are socialized, further work is needed to understand students' beliefs about different decision‐making approaches. Purpose/HypothesisWe explored the espoused beliefs of undergraduate students about technical, empathic, experience‐based, and guess‐based approaches to engineering design decisions. Design/MethodWe conducted semistructured one‐on‐one interviews with 20 senior engineering students at the conclusion of their capstone design experience. We used a combination of deductive and inductive data condensation approaches to generate categories of beliefs. ResultsWe identified a total of nine categories of beliefs, organized by approach. Although students' espoused beliefs did reflect the emphasis on technical approaches present in their socialization, they also described technical approaches as limited and overvalued. ConclusionThe landscape of beliefs presented make explicit both the challenges and the opportunities that students' beliefs play as the backdrop for any efforts of engineering educators to develop engineers as effective and equitable engineering designers. 

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5. Problem Reframing and Empathy Manifestation in the Innovation Process

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--35084  

   Kim, Eunhye; Purzer, Senay; Vivas-Valencia, Carolina; Payne, Lindsey; Kong, Nan (June 2020, 2020 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Montréal, Quebec, Canada)

   null (Ed.)

   In the innovation process, design practice involves multiple iterations of framing and reframing under high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity. Additionally, as user desirability is a significant criterion for innovative design, designers' empathy in the framing and reframing process is considered a critical user-centered design ability that engineering students should develop. In this context, this study aims to discuss how problem framing and empathy manifestation interplay in the innovation process. As an exploratory study, this study investigates biomedical engineering (BME) students’ reframing processes and decisions in a one-semester design project involving problem definition and concept identification. This investigation is guided by the following research questions: 1) how do engineering students perceive the relationship between empathy and reframing in the innovation process, 2) how and how often do they make reframing decisions over the stages of problem definition and concept identification, and 3) how different are reframing processes and decisions between teams with higher and lower empathetic design tendency scores? This study was conducted in a junior-level design course, including 76 BME students. We collected and analyzed three data sources: students’ self-reflection reports about their reframing processes, empathic design tendency score, and interviews with selected teams and instructors. The results demonstrated that more than half of the students perceived the connection between empathy and their reframing decisions and that they usually had one reframing moment in the stages of problem definition and concept identification. Also, the findings illustrate triggers for their reframing moments, information sources guiding their reframing processes, changes made through reframing, and influences of reframing decisions on team project processes. Furthermore, the comparison of the selected two teams revealed two differences in reframing processes between the high and low empathic design tendency-scoring teams. The authors believe that the study expands engineering education research on engineering students’ empathy and problem-framing by illustrating students’ reframing processes throughout a design project and exploring the interplay of empathy and reframing processes. Also, based on our study findings, engineering design educators can promote student empathy development by including more project activities and evaluation criteria related to empathic design and providing formative feedback on their reframing processes. 

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