Best Practices In Engineering Education: Is The Impact Gendered?

This paper presents results from an NSF-funded study of engineering students at Rowan University. Only five years old, the infrastructure of Rowan's engineering program has incorporated many of the elements believed to facilitate the retention and success of women in engineering. Hands-on lab work and interdisciplinary, cooperative teamwork are cornerstones of all levels of the undergraduate program; communication skills are integrated into the curriculum; a low faculty-student ratio and class size insure individualized attention; ample opportunities for industry-based internships exist. Under such conditions, do female students flourish alongside the male students? The study compares male and female students’ satisfaction with various aspects of the program and climate in the Engineering College, and shows variation in gender differences by year in the program. The analysis shows that female students are as satisfied or more satisfied than the male students with the programmatic elements of demands on the students in the classroom and in the curriculum, the applied aspects of the program in terms of labwork, teamwork and Rowan’s engineering clinic, and peer and student-faculty relationships. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings in terms of whether the practices of the Rowan program are indeed best practices in engineering education, and not for women only.