Wen Ting Chung

Addressing engineering educators’ concerns: Collaborative learning and achievement

Recent calls for engineering education reform have included collaborative learning as a means to prepare students for future careers in engineering. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of collaboration and self-efficacy on undergraduate engineering studentspsila achievement. The results indicated significant positive correlations between collaborative learning and course grade (r = .29) and self-efficacy and course grade (r = .44). The linear combination of collaboration and self-efficacy accounted for 22% of the variance in course grade. Collaborative learning remained a significant predictor of course grade over and above self-efficacy. The results showed that students engaging in collaboration with peers achieved at higher levels than those who did not. In a field where individual work and competition has traditionally been valued, opportunities for collaboration may be beneficial to studentspsila academic achievement.

Steps toward a sound measure of engineering student attitudes: Pittsburgh Engineering Attitudes Scale - Revised

Engineering education is currently undergoing a transition toward increased constructivist practices and a new philosophy of education that recognizes the active role of the learner in constructing knowledge. To meet the demands of the changing landscape, our research team has been reworking the Pittsburgh Engineering Attitudes Scale so that valid and reliable inferences can be made about engineering student attitudes. The current study follows up on our analysis of the scale at FIE 2008, and presents evidence of structural validity, internal reliability, and external validity of student responses to a revised version of the scale. The results of the current study suggest the Pittsburgh Engineering Attitudes Scale - Revised overcomes previous problems with the original scale reported in the literature and that we are making positive steps toward a sound measure of student attitudes.