Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Understanding the Similarities and Differences Between Academia and the Engineering Workplace through Barriers to Adoption, Epistemic Beliefs, and Problem-Solving Behavior

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  • Engineering education research has led to a greater understanding of the gap in preparedness of students for the engineering industry. Multiple studies comparing the workplace and academic contexts and the participants in those contexts (i.e., students, faculty, and engineering practitioners) have emphasized similarities and differences between the two contexts by examining the material presented and the problem-solving behaviors of the participants of each context. The purpose of this study is to explore this gap further by working closely and collaboratively with engineering practitioners and faculty as they iteratively develop authentic design activities and rubrics for civil engineering courses. The development of these learning tools acted as a mediating task to understand more about the epistemic beliefs of engineering practitioners and faculty as is relates to engineering knowledge and barriers to adoption. A thematic analysis relying on a robust data set of multiple semi-structured interviews led to the emergence of in-vivo codes and themes that compare the two contexts. Findings from this exploration noted that the meaning of an answer is defined differently by engineering practitioners and faculty. Engineering practitioners tend to focus more on the solution process and why decisions are made where faculty focus more on the final answer and how the knowledge gained through solving a problem leads to conceptual understanding. Multiple themes emerged and were mapped across the three overriding concerns and five dimensions of epistemic beliefs that led to inherent similarities and differences between the engineering practitioners and faculty. Results indicate that both engineering practitioners and faculty believe that where knowledge is located, and the source of knowledge are related to practical, real-world experiences. Differences in epistemic beliefs show that faculty emphasize the abstract learning and confidence of their students in their classroom. This contrasts with how engineering practitioners’ beliefs emphasis the consequences of their designs in the workplace. This study also found that barriers to adoption such as time, incentives, and complexity of the design activities prevent adoption of new innovations in engineering courses. While the design activities developed in this study have been accepted by the faculty for testing in their courses, more research is needed to determine if they can be fully adopted and how the iterative process can be improved for future adoption efforts. Lastly, the problem-solving behaviors and heuristics of engineering practitioners and students as they solve engineering problems with multiple solution pathways has highlighted differences in their allocation of time and approaches to problem solving. These findings offer additional understanding of the differences and similarities between the two contexts and help to understand the gap in preparedness of students for the engineering industry. Results from this study should be used to help assist in the development of new learning innovations. If the goal of engineering education is to prepare students for the engineering industry, educators should have access to the tools necessary to do so that are informed by the experts who use them.
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