Premium
Engineering in Context: An Empirical Study of Freshmen Students' Conceptual Frameworks
Author(s) -
Atman Cynthia J.,
Nair Indira
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.1996.tb00251.x
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , engineering education , mathematics education , perception , energy (signal processing) , psychology , pedagogy , engineering ethics , engineering , mathematics , engineering management , paleontology , statistics , neuroscience , biology
Calls for curricular reform in engineering include teaching engineering principles in the broader context of society. In this paper, we empirically investigate how freshmen students perceive the broader societal context of science and technology. We explored the questions:• What is the framework of knowledge and attitudes of engineering freshmen on science, technology and society (STS) issues? • How different are their frameworks from those of students in other majors? • We used a structured, open‐ended interview methodology to elicit knowledge about two STS issues: “human energy needs” and “global climate change.” Our sample consists of ninety‐two students. Each student was interviewed about one topic. First, we found that there was no difference in the attitude expressed about technology by engineering students and students who are not engineering majors. Both groups think science and technology solve problems more often than they create problems. Second, we found that, although the difference is not large, engineering students consistently mentioned more concepts than students with other majors, and they mentioned these concepts more often. Qualitatively, the specific concepts mentioned by the two groups were almost identical for both topics. The engineering students mentioned more technological concepts and students in other majors mentioned more societal concepts for the human energy needs topic. In summary, the knowledge and perceptions of STS issues of freshmen engineering students and students who are not engineering majors are largely similar. This suggests that common, interdisciplinary STS courses are a good approach for providing general technological literacy for both groups.