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Abstract BackgroundA perceived fit between personal values and what a career offers is critical for college students pursuing and persisting in that career. Purpose/Hypothesis(es)We, therefore, investigated the career values of engineering undergraduates through language in two different studies. Study 1 (N = 35) examined students' written postgraduation plans for agentic and communal career value themes. Drawing on Study 1 themes, Study 2 (N = 918) examined the association of achievement‐related and interpersonal word categories in written narratives to surveyed career values. Design/MethodIn Study 1, inductive and deductive approaches were used to identify agentic and communal career values. In Study 2, regressions were conducted using achievement‐related and interpersonal words as outcomes. ResultsStudy 1 found agentic and communal value themes. Agentic value themes included career, personal development, and financial gains. Communal value themes included helping others and being family‐oriented. Results from Study 2 showed that students' language use in the discussion of their careers was associated with surveyed career values. ConclusionAlthough engineering students hold more agentic than communal values, they hold both career values, which may have implications for supporting students from diverse backgrounds.
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How Engineering Students Learn and are Impacted by Empathy Training: A Multi-year Study of an Empathy Program Focused on Disability and Technology
Abstract PurposeMeasurable results of efforts to teach empathy to engineering students are sparse and somewhat mixed. This study’s objectives are (O1) to understand how empathy training affects students’ professional development relative to other educational experiences, (O2) to track empathy changes due to training over multiple years, and (O3) to understand how and what students learn in empathy training environments. MethodsStudents in a multiple-semester empathy course completed surveys ranking the career development impact of the empathy program against other college experiences (O1), rating learning of specific empathy skills (O2), and ranking program elements’ impact on empathy skills (O3). Intervention and control groups completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Jefferson Scale of Empathy at four time points (O2). Cohort students participated in post-program interviews (O1, O3). ResultsO1: Empathy training impacted career development more than several typical college activities but less than courses in major. O2: Students reported gains in four taught empathy skills. Cohort students showed significant increases in the Jefferson Scale while the control group did not. There were no significant changes in Interpersonal Reactivity Index scores. O3: interactive exercises had a significant effect on students’ learning all empathy skills while interactions with people with disabilities had significant effect on learning to encounter others with genuineness. Students valued building a safe in-class community facilitating their success in experiential environments. ConclusionsThis study highlights empathy skills’ importance in engineering students’ development, shows gains in empathy with training, and uncovers key factors in students’ learning experience that can be incorporated into engineering curricula.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1751821
- PAR ID:
- 10579187
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Biomedical Engineering Education
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2730-5937
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 251-270
- Size(s):
- p. 251-270
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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