Exploring Students' Perceptions of Complex Problems and Stakeholders

Studies have shown that engineering students are typically not exposed to what they will encounter as practicing professionals: problems that are hard to define, have multiple stakeholders, and involve non-engineering constraints. There is therefore a need to expose engineering students to real, complex problems. Various publications in engineering education, including ABET outcomes, have also emphasized the importance of preparing students to work in multidisciplinary teams and to be knowledgeable of current issues. In 2013, the University of Pittsburgh implemented a course (ENGR 1060/2060) on social entrepreneurship that targets these concerns. The course, titled “Social Entrepreneurship: Engineering for Humanity”, discusses social entrepreneurship through the lens of sustainability and “wicked”, or complex, problems. It is taught as part of Engineers for a Sustainable World’s (ESW) Wicked Problems in Sustainability Initiative, in which ESW provides the participating schools with a different wicked problem every year. The course is open to all majors, and to both undergraduate and graduate students. While the majority of the students thus far have been mostly undergraduates from different engineering majors, there have been undergraduate students from non-engineering majors as well as graduate students from both engineering and non-engineering majors, providing a multidisciplinary environment for students to discuss and learn about wicked problems. Although the semester-long project is a group project, students work on individual writing assignments that they submit throughout the semester. They are given prompts related to wicked problems, sustainability, and social entrepreneurship, and they then write 600-1000 words in response to these prompts. These writing assignments require that students find appropriate references to provide facts and support their statements, but they also require some personal reflection, and convey each individual’s perspectives about the different topics. The purpose of this study is to explore how students’ perceptions of and engagement with complex problems and stakeholders change as a result of participating in this course. Students’ individual writing assignments from 2015 and 2016 were qualitatively analyzed to answer the following research questions: In what ways do students describe complex problems, and how does this change from the beginning to the end of the semester? In what ways do students characterize stakeholders, and how does this change from the beginning to the end of the semester? Data were analyzed using open coding. No predetermined themes were used as part of the data analysis; the resulting themes emerged from the data. Findings from this study can provide information regarding how students begin to think about complex problems, current issues, and stakeholders – problems such as those they will encounter as engineering professionals – and how these thoughts evolve throughout the semester. Introduction and Background Engineering is usually characterized as a field that focuses on problem solving. For example, the Engineer of 2020, as described by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), will have the ingenuity needed to “identify problems and find solutions”. A great focus of engineering education has been to prepare students to be effective problem solvers. However, research has shown that the problems students encounter as part of their engineering education often differ significantly from the ones they encounter in the workplace. Jonassen et al. write that the common types of problems students are exposed to are word problems “for which the parameters ... are specified in the problem statement.” In contrast, the problems encountered in the engineering workplace are “ill-structured and complex”. Additional research has found that engineering students also recognize this difference: they describe the problems they see in their courses as “closed-ended, contrived, and focused on mathematics”, while problems encountered in the workplace are described as “complex, open-ended, and requiring the consideration of diverse criteria”. The mismatch in what students are prepared for and what they actually encounter suggests a need to revise the types of problems that are incorporated into undergraduate programs. The descriptions of the engineering problems encountered in the workplace suggest that engineers are dealing with “wicked” problems. Wicked problems are unresolvable problems with values-driven solutions. The complete list of attributes, as listed in Rittel and Webber, can be found in Table 1. The Engineer of 2020 will be working on problems related to “climate change, the environment, and the intersections between technology and social/public policies” – all considered examples of wicked problems. As such, it would benefit students to be exposed to wicked problems as part of their undergraduate curriculum. Table 1: Characteristics of wicked problems, as listed in Rittel & Webber 1. There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem 2. Wicked problems have no stopping rule 3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but good-or-bad 4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem 5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly 6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan 7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique 8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem 9. The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution 10. The planner has no right to be wrong In 2013, the University of Pittsburgh implemented an elective course (ENGR 1060/2060) on social entrepreneurship to address these concerns. The course, titled “Social Entrepreneurship: Engineering for Humanity”, discusses social entrepreneurship through the lens of sustainability and wicked problems. It is taught as part of Engineers for a Sustainable World’s (ESW) Wicked Problems in Sustainability Initiative (WPSI). WPSI supports several institutions with diverse courses that all focus on the same wicked problem each year, with WPSI providing a different wicked problem every year along with shared guest lecturers and infrastructure for interinstitutional peer review and faculty support. (See Hess et al. 6,7 for more information on WPSI). ENGR 1060/2060 centers around three main topics throughout the semester: social entrepreneurship, sustainability, and wicked problems. In addition to learning about these topics, students complete a semester-long group project to write a business plan for a social enterprise that will address that year’s specific wicked problem (provided by WPSI). Students also work on five individual writing assignments that they submit throughout the semester. Prompts relate to questions and intersections of wicked problems, sustainability, and social entrepreneurship, and students write 600-1000 words in response to each prompt. ENGR 1060/2060, though housed in engineering and taught by an engineering faculty member, is open to all majors, and to both undergraduate and graduate students. While the majority of the students thus far have been undergraduates from different engineering majors, there have been undergraduate students from non-engineering majors as well as graduate students from both engineering and non-engineering majors, providing a multidisciplinary environment for students to discuss and learn about wicked problems. A major strength of ENGR 1060/2060 is that it helps prepare students for many skills. The writing assignments, presentations, and in-class discussions help strengthen their communication skills. The group project, with students of different majors and levels, develops their teamwork skills. The course topics and readings focus on the types of complex problems they will encounter as professional engineers, and the process of writing a business plan strengthens their knowledge of business principles. All of these skills will be necessary to the success of the Engineer of 2020, and will give them a breadth in addition to the technical depth they usually possess (see Tranquillo for more on the importance of the “T-shaped” engineer, and Hess et al. 6-7 for more on the skills students develop as part of WPSI). The specific ABET outcomes targeted by this course are (c) “an ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability”, (f) “an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility”, (h) “the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context”, and (j) “a knowledge of contemporary issues”. The purpose of this study is to begin to assess the effectiveness of the course and course structure in helping students learn the course topics. This first study will focus on two topics in particular. Because engineers need to be prepared to work on wicked problems, our first research question is (1) In what ways do ENGR 1060/2060 students describe complex problems, and how does this change from the beginning to the end of the semester? Because engineering is a discipline that by nature involves numerous stakeholders, and the involvement of various stakeholders is a requirement for addressing wicked problems, our second research question is (2) In what ways do students characterize stakeholders, and how does this change from the beginning to the end of the semest