Nathan E. Canney

Differences in Engineering Students’ Views of Social Responsibility between Disciplines

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine differences in student views of social responsibility by discipline, looking at student reasons for their choice of discipline and online messaging as possible explanations for differences. Civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering students at five universities were surveyed regarding their views of social responsibility, which was measured using 50 questions on a 7-point Likert scale and open-ended response questions. Results showed that environmental engineering students had more positive social responsibility attitudes than civil engineering students, whose attitudes were more positive than mechanical engineering students. The greatest differences were among first-year students, suggesting that a priori perceptions of these disciplines differentiated more than curricular content. This hypothesis was supported by differences in the student motivations for choosing each major and online messaging between these disciplines with respect to elements of...

Macroethics instruction in co-curricular settings: The development and results of a national survey

Ethical awareness and decision-making are important skills for graduating engineers transitioning into professional practice and for engineering education accreditation. Ethics instruction can target microethics which focuses on individual projects and topics such as safety, and macroethics which covers larger ethical topics in the field of engineering such as sustainability. While much research has addressed microethical concerns, fewer studies have addressed macroethicial issues. Ethics instruction takes place in a wide variety of settings, both curricular in for-credit classes and co-curricular settings such as clubs and societies. The present work-in-progress paper presents a National Science Foundation supported investigation into macroethics education in co-curricular settings that gathered information via a survey of instructors and mentors of these activities. Preliminary results from the on-going survey are presented, including the settings for co-curricular macroethics instruction and the ethics topics that are discussed. Also, assessment methods used to determine outcomes will be discussed.

Relationships between religion, spirituality, and socially responsible engineering

ABSTRACT This research explored the social responsibility (SR) attitudes of engineering students with respect to their self-reported religious beliefs and the religious affiliation of their institution. The study measured SR attitudes using 50 items on a 7-point Likert metric. Over 1900 responses were received in spring 2014 from undergraduate engineering students attending 5 Christian-affiliated and 12 secular universities. On average, students attending Christian-affiliated institutions had more positive SR attitudes than students attending secular institutions. However, an individuals religious beliefs were more important than the institution in predicting SR attitudes. Students who stated that they were very active in an organized religion had more positive attitudes toward SR than students who self-characterized as spiritual, who were in turn more positive than students less active in their religious preference, indifferent, or atheist. College courses were reported to have impacted views of SR by 42–74% of the students attending various institutions; among these students, 32% of the students attending Christian-affiliated institutions indicated that religion-related courses had an impact. The results indicate a need to further explore how religious beliefs impact SR beliefs, toward the goal of more effectively encouraging all engineering students – religious or not – to recognize the importance of socially responsible engineering.

Working engineers’ satisfaction with helping people and society through their jobs

ABSTRACT This research explored the extent that working engineers were satisfied with their ability to help or serve people and/or society through their jobs. Over 450 engineering graduates responded to an online survey, including alumni recently transitioning to the workforce from 16 U.S. institutions and professional volunteers with Engineers Without Borders-U.S.A. Only 18% of the respondents currently working in engineering jobs had some level of dissatisfaction with helping others through their job; this differed by job sector and discipline but not gender or between recent alumni and service-active engineers. Forty per cent cited dissatisfaction with service aspects of their work as a contributing factor for leaving an engineering job. A few seemed to have left engineering careers due to dissatisfaction with their ability to help others. The results point to the importance of aligning personal goals for helping people/society with engineering careers; employers facilitating these connections may reap benefits in employee retention.

Facilitating habitual reflection in students - application to an engineering capstone project

This work-in-progress examines an attempt to develop reflective habits in engineering students, towards engendering life-long reflective practices. The intervention was designed to implement theoretical frameworks of reflection in engineering education and self-regulated learning. The theory of reflection used is based on five elements of reflective activities: the experience, its features, the lens through which reflection is taken, the meaning making, and influence on future action. Self-regulated learning focuses on instilling behaviors and character traits to help students understand themselves as learners, strengthening their abilities to engage in new topics. This study was implemented with four senior civil engineering students throughout a year-long senior capstone project. Reflection was facilitated within the team by applying a consistent reflection framework (rate individual and team progress, identify goals for improvement, identify a plan to meet these goals, assess success in implementing plan from previous week) onto diverse aspects of the design project (individual performance, group meetings, and presentations) with multiple contexts (thoughtful review for individual performance, video review for group meeting and presentation performance). Reflection activities were carried out weekly with advisor notes returned to them prior to the next weeks activity. Through repetitive reflection using a consistent framework applied through various contexts the students are trained to implicitly apply reflection in their coursework and, ideally, in their daily lives. This paper documents the successes and challenges of applying this methodology to a year-long senior capstone project with four undergraduate students.

Shaping Future Engineers through Service in Engineering Education

Modern engineering education sits at the intersection of diverse, complex and sometimes competing voices about the general need for more engineers and what skills those engineers should possess. Many are calling for the education of holistic engineers in order to address complex social issues being faced today (National Academy of Engineering, 2004; ABET, 2008; American Society of Civil Engineers, 2008).