Thematic review and analysis of grounded theory application in software engineering

We present metacodes, a new concept to guide grounded theory (GT) research in software engineering. Metacodes are high level codes that can help software engineering researchers guide the data coding process. Metacodes are constructed in the course of analyzing software engineering papers that use grounded theory as a research methodology. We performed a high level analysis to discover common themes in such papers and discovered that GT had been applied primarily in three software engineering disciplines: agile development processes, geographically distributed software development, and requirements engineering. For each category, we collected and analyzed all grounded theory codes and created, following a GT analysis process, what we call metacodes that can be used to drive further theory building. This paper surveys the use of grounded theory in software engineering and presents an overview of successes and challenges of applying this research methodology

An Investigative Study Into Student Motivation and Identity Among Upper Class Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

This study investigates upper-class electrical and computer engineering students’ motivation and how students identify with their major. In addition, it also explores how student chosen research, projects, and learning impact the levels of motivation in students and how students identify with their major. Three different surveys were used over the course of the spring semester of 2017 at the University of Maine for this study: the Pittsburgh Freshman Engineering Aptitude Survey, the Project Ownership Survey, and the 2017 Electrical and Computer Engineering Survey. Participants for this study were junior and senior electrical and computer engineers, and students enrolled in ECE 466: Sensor Technology and Information. This study found that students exposed to research prior to the selection of a project, experienced increased levels of ownership and motivation for projects. Secondly, this study found that students experienced lower levels of motivation near the end of the semester when compared to the beginning

STUDI MOTIVASI SISWI SMK MEMILIH PROFESI BIDANG TEKNIK

Pesatnya perkembangan ilmu serta teknologi dibidang engineering memerlukan tenaga- tenaga yang handal dengan kualifikasi yang memadai. Jumlah siswi SMK yang memilih jurusan bidang teknik dari tahun ke tahun jumlah terus meningkat serta kebutuhan perempuan sebagai tenaga ahli dalam bidang teknik semakin bertambah. Metode yang digunakan wawancara semi terstruktur. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui motivasi siswi SMK dalam memilih jurusan, yang dapat dilihat dari faktor internal dan eksternal. Sembilan orang siswi SMK sudah diwawancarai. Hasil penelitian ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa motivasi siswi SMK memilih jurusan bidang teknologi yaitu (1) lokasi sekolah dekat dengan rumah, (2) tidak ada pilihan jurusan lain. Meskipun alasan siswi memilih tanpa diikuti keinginan untuk mencari informasi tentang jurusan yang dipilih. Kata Kunci : Motivasi, siswi SMK, memilih jurusan teknik. The rapid development of science and technology in the field of engineering requires reliable personnel with adequate qualifications. The number of vocational school students who choose engineering majors from year to year continues to increase and the need for women as experts in the field of engineering is increasing. The method used is semi-structured interviews. The purpose of this study was to determine the motivation of vocational school students in choosing majors, which can be seen from internal and external factors. Nine vocational school students have been interviewed. The results of this study can be concluded that the motivation of vocational school students to choose a major in technology is (1) the location of the school is close to home, (2) there is no choice of other majors. Even though the reason why students choose is not followed by the desire to find information about the chosen major. Keywords: Motivation, SMK students, choosing engineering majors

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: Science Practices And Science Identity

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) have become more commonly incorporated in laboratory courses in undergraduate education. Because CUREs incorporate research within the context of a course, the benefits of mentored research (self-efficacy, science identity, persistence, and more) are extended to each student enrolled. CUREs are designed with five key components: discovery, relevance, iteration, collaboration, and science practices. However, the term science practices is broad and includes a diversity of student activities which can make it difficult to compare student outcomes across different CUREs. The first part of this work reviews the components and specific science practices included in all CUREs published over a 20-year timeframe. This systematic review summarizes the nature of CUREs; including the course level for which they are designed, their scientific discipline and subdiscipline (if applicable), as well as the primary CURE components and the science practices included. The second project examines the relationship between students having autonomy over science practices and how autonomy or no autonomy impacts the development of science identity using a mixed methods analysis in a single CURE. The final project uses qualitative methodology to better understand how science identity is impacted by students performing research in a CURE. It also examines how students differentiate between being a scientist or a science person and how performance of research during a CURE influences this perception of themselves. The three included articles begin by assessing CUREs as a whole, elucidating the practices that are used within a CURE by comparing practices across 242 unique CUREs(Chapter I). From there, I measured the science identity scores of 147 students in an introductory biology class to examine the impact of two specific science practices used within a CURE (Chapter II). Finally, I used a smaller subset of participants (n = 14) to examine how participation within a CURE affected their perception of scientists, science people, and their own science identities. The purpose of this project is to assess the science practices most commonly represented in CUREs, to determine how these specific science practices impact development of student science identity, and to define how students think about their own science identities

How to Do QuantCrit: A Reflexive Account of Applying Critical Quantitative Methods to a Study of Black Women in STEM

There has been extensive research into the underrepresentation of minoritized students in STEM disciplines since the 1990s with limited success in improving the representation of Black women in math-intensive STEM fields. This dissertation aims to address how the guiding tenets of critical quantitative (QuantCrit) methods work when used with publicly available datasets and commonly used statistical approaches. Additionally, this dissertation provides a framework for how to apply reflexivity as a method while utilizing a QuantCrit approach. The publicly available HSLS:09 dataset is used as part of a reflexive study to demonstrate how the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) map onto a QuantCrit study utilizing structural equation modeling. Through personal, methodological, and conceptual reflexivity, disconnects between the tenets and the QuantCrit study are highlighted and discussed. These findings indicate a need for more robust guidelines surrounding QuantCrit research. Furthermore, publication access must be expanded to encourage movement beyond traditional White ways of knowing. Advisor: Elvira Abric

Sculpting Organs: An Arts-Based Educational Activity for Anatomy Learning

As an integral component of healthcare, a comprehensive understanding of anatomy is necessary for accurate clinical diagnoses and medical procedures. Beginning in undergraduate classrooms (premedical), there is a need to explore new ways of teaching and learning anatomy to train healthcare professionals. Traditional methods of attending a lecture and reading a textbook may not be the most effective method to learn about anatomical structures—or to engage learners. However, recent studies have reported promising results in the use of arts-based approaches to enhance anatomy learning. Of these, clay sculpting can provide an opportunity for students to participate in an active and engaging learning experience. Thus, after a thorough literature review of educational approaches in anatomy and discussion of relevant learning theories, this thesis presents an educational protocol on a tactile-learning activity—sculpting the human heart out of clay—to be considered for integration into an anatomy curriculum to enhance attention, positive emotions, and retention of information. To align with several pedagogical principles, a multimedia slideshow, an instructor-led clay sculpting tutorial video, and an instructional guide manual were developed. After completion of a 20-question pre-activity quiz, a 20-minute video tutorial features an instructor illustrating each basic sculpting technique, as well as the key structures of the heart that learners needed to be model the heart. The activity is designed to take approximately 40-60 minutes to complete, although learners may choose to spend additional time improving the quality of their model or technique. The educational protocol and curriculum created in this project provides an example of integrating arts-based methods into medical education and explores the potential benefits of incorporating a tactile activity as a part of the multimodal and hands-on approach to aid pre-medical students\u27 understanding of anatomy

Interventions to support the mental health and wellbeing of engineering students: a scoping review.

Engineering students enter a challenging and competitive sector in higher education and are potentially at risk of poor mental health and or mental wellbeing. It is important to raise awareness of and support good mental health and wellbeing for engineering students. We carried out a scoping review using Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology. Published sources of evidence were searched for this review via: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycInfo, Compendex, Web of Science, Emerald, Epistemonikos and Business Source Complete. Searches were conducted in January 2019 and updated in January 2020, and March 2022. Two reviewers independently screened all titles and abstracts, full text sources and extracted data using a form developed by the authors. Results: Searches identified 191 sources of evidence after title screening and 33 sources of evidence were included for final extraction following full-text screening. This represented over 4000 engineering students from 10 countries. Included studies were predominantly pilots, which suggests a lack of diverse research methods in the existing research base. Studies also varied in approaches to reporting. Interventions included training, relaxation, technology use, alternative teaching models, support services and a study break witha range of outcome measures used to evaluate intervention effects. Results of included studies noted reduced stress and anxiety, improved academic achievement, improved communication, motivation, physiological responses, attitude, and increased physical activity, health awareness and confidence. Mindfulness activities appear to be accepted by and helpful to engineering students. Conclusions: This review mapped interventions to support mental health and wellbeing in engineering students but identifies a need for further high-quality robust studies that are transparently reported using reporting guidelines

A factor analysis of the preferred learning styles of Industrial Technology and Engineering undergraduate students at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University and at Iowa State University

This study examined the learning style preferences of African American and European American undergraduate students in the Industrial Technology and Engineering programs at North Carolina A&T State University and Iowa State University. In this study, the independent variables employed were ethnicity, discipline, and the named institutions. The dependent variables were the 20 learning style preferences in the Productivity Environmental Survey (PEPS). Convenience sampling was used to collect 540 students. A factor analysis was used to determine the preferred learning styles for African American and European American students at each institution. In addition, the hypotheses were tested by the Box\u27s M test in the discriminant analysis. The hypotheses were tested at an a priori level of .05 to ascertain significant differences in the factor structures or groups.;The findings of the study concluded that: (1) there were differences in the factor loading profiles of African American and European American students at each institution, regardless of discipline, and (2) there were no differences between the factor loading profiles of Industrial Technology and Engineering students at either institution. Further analyses were generated to determine additional findings on African American and European American learning styles within their respective disciplines. The analyses consisted of examining if there were differences between factor loading profiles by combining both ethnic groups from each program, regardless of institution. The findings concluded that there were no differences between the factor loading profiles of the students enrolled in the two programs

GRADUATES' UNDERSTANDINGS, ACTUAL WRITING, AND CHALLENGES IN CONSTRUCTING RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS

ABSTRAK Penelitian mengenai abstrak dalam artikel penelitian telah dikaji secara luas mulai dari menginvestigasi konstituen move-step, realisasi linguistic, keragaman budaya, maupun tantangan dalam penulisannya. Akan tetapi, hanya sedikit yang berfokus untuk mengeksplorasi pemahaman siswa dan menghubungkannya dengan tulisan mereka Oleh karena itu tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk membandingkan pernyataan siswa mengenai move-step dalam abstrak dengan apa yang mereka tulis sekaligus mengeksplorasi tantangan menulis abstrak. Dengan demikian, penelitian ini menggunakan desain kualitatif dan menggunakan kuesioner terbuka yang diberikan kepada 10 mahasiswa pascasarjana secara daring. Untuk bagian move-step dianalisa menggunakan model Hyland (2000) sementara tantangan dalam penulisan abstrak diklasifikasikan berdasarkan teori Ferguson (2011). Hasil dari penelitian ini menyebutkan bahwa pemahaman siswa mengenai move-step tidak tercermin dalam tulisannya. Ketidaksesuaian antara pemahaman dan tulisan sebagian besar ditemukan pada step yang ada di move 1 dan move 5. Hal ini terjadi karena beberapa alasan seperti tingkat pengetahuan, tidak adanya persyaratan khusus dari penerbit, kurangnya keterampilan linguistik, serta perbedaan perspektif dan preferensi. Sementara itu, dalam hal tantangan, penulis meyebutkan bahwa mereka menghadapi enam tipe tantangan seperti menulis poin-poin utama dalam abstrak, menulis abstrak yang informatif, mengunakan kosa kata akademik, koherensi penulisan dan paragraf yang jelas, mencari contoh penulisan abstrak yang baik di internet dan mencari penerbit yang sesuai. Oleh karena itu, disarankan untu menambahkan penjelasan yang lebih mendalam mengenai elemen move-step pada mata kuliah penulisan akademik. Selain itu, siswa juga harus diberikan kesempatan yang luas untuk menulis abstrak berdasarkan pada teori-teori yang diberikan di kelas. Kata Kunci: tantangan, move-step dalam penulisan abstrak, tulisan siswa, pemahaman siswa ABSTRACT Studies on research article abstracts have been done extensively ranging from investigating the constituent move-step, linguistic realization, cultural diversities, to the challenges of writing them. However, only a few focus on exploring the students’ understandings and its relationship with their actual writing. Thus, this study aims to compare the students’ statement of abstract move-step with their actual writing as well as exploring their challenges in writing the abstract. This study employed a qualitative design and used an online open-ended questionnaire administered to ten graduates’ students. The move-step was analyzed using Hyland’s (2000) model while the challenges were classified based on Ferguson’s (2011) theory. The findings revealed that the students’ understandings do not reflected in their writing. The differences between the students’ understandings and actual writing mostly appeared in the step-level of move 1 and move 5. This is due to some reasons such as level of familiarity, no specific requirements from the publisher, lack of linguistic skills, and different perspectives and preferences. Meanwhile, in terms of challenges, the students stated that they encountered six challenges such as writing the main points of abstract, writing an informative abstract, using academic vocabulary, writing coherence and clear paragraph, finding good sample of abstract in the internet, and finding suitable publishers. Therefore, it is suggested that academic writing courses elaborate more about the elements of move-step in abstract writing. In addition, the students must also be given an ample opportunity to actually write the abstract referring to the theories given in the class. Key words: Challenges, move-step in abstract writing, students’ actual writing, students’ understanding