A Software Engineer’s Competencies: Undergraduate Preconceptions in Contrast to Teaching Intentions

Unlike numerous scientific disciplines, the field of engineering has rarely been subject to investigations of undergraduate pre-/misconceptions except for STEM subjects within engineering degrees. When it comes to Software Engineering, some special issues have to be taken into account (e.g. novelty of the discipline and immateriality of the product) that make this discipline hard to teach and learn. Additionally, it requires a wide range of different technical competencies as well as soft skills. As a consequence, the goal is to improve learning by using undergraduates’ “right” conceptions as “points of departure” and reduce learning obstacles by facing misconceptions. This paper is giving some first insights into a quantitative study conducted with undergraduates – before and after instruction – as well as two professors using a questionnaire to rate Software Engineering competencies to elicit preconceptions

Using Data in Undergraduate Science Classrooms

Provides pedagogical insight concerning the skill of using data The resource being annotated is: http://www.dlese.org/dds/catalog_DATA-CLASS-000-000-000-007.htm

Evaluating the impact of serious games: the effect of gaming on entrepreneurial intent

Purpose - Serious games are playing an increasingly significant role across a range of educational contexts. Business focused serious games can provide students with an authentic learning experience and their use has been increasingly taken up by business school faculty, including those delivering entrepreneurship education. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of participation in a serious business game on the Entrepreneurial Intent of undergraduate students. Design/methodology/approach - The study adopts a pre-test / post-test quasi-experimental design. It employs a modified version of Linan et al.’s (2011) Entrepreneurial Intent model in the form of a questionnaire survey completed by 263 undergraduate business and management students. Findings – A logic regression model was used to analyse the survey responses. The research findings indicate that the serious game used in this study has a significant negative impact on Entrepreneurial Intent. Gender and role model effects are also identified from the analysis. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the literature in two ways. Firstly, it demonstrates the impact of serious business games on Entrepreneurial Intent during the enterprise awareness stage of a student’s entrepreneurship education. Secondly, it provides a foundation for exploring the role that serious games can play in educating the potential entrepreneurs of the future

Interdisciplinary Research Experiences For Undergraduates: Two Mixed-Methods Studies

Despite the demand for a diverse STEM-educated population and workforce, college students have consistently turned away from these disciplines in large numbers, creating a persistent problem that many are trying to address. The aim of the National Science Foundation\u27s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is to inspire, attract, and retain STEM majors. Funding supports undergraduate STEM students\u27 engagement in real-world research alongside STEM mentors. As colleges and universities compete for funding for REUs, it is important to understand the mechanisms within summer research programs that resonate most deeply with undergraduate STEM researchers. While many studies reveal strong correlations between research experiences and STEM aspirations, less is known about the mechanisms within REU programs that support these gains. My research used quantitative and qualitative self-reported data from 20 REU students, 18 of whom were underrepresented minorities in STEM. Over two summers, these students, in cohorts of ten, came to the University of Vermont to participate in a team-oriented, 10-week REU: Interdisciplinary Research on Human Impacts in the Lake Champlain Ecosystem. Two mixed-methods studies, guided by the frameworks of the theory of possible selves, theory of self-efficacy for research, and social cognitive career theory, revealed four important program mechanisms that gave rise to gains in research skills, confidence and self-efficacy for research, and STEM career aspirations, particularly for individuals from underrepresented minority groups in STEM. Findings suggest that the program fostered student capacity building within a safe, inclusive, and positive setting where students experienced what it feels like to be an active participant in the world of research. Within this context, critical mechanisms that gave rise to gains in research skills, confidence and self-efficacy for research, and STEM career aspirations included: (1) experiential education through interdisciplinary research experiences, (2) student independence and ownership balanced with expert researcher guidance and support, (3) formal and informal mentoring networks where students were mentored and where they mentored others, and (4) the establishment of an intentional learning community that advanced leadership, research skill building, perseverance, and reflection. Results from this research cannot be generalized beyond the context of the Lake Champlain REU, however, findings are in alignment with the body of literature that highlights the positive effects of REUs on STEM majors\u27 research skills, confidence and self-efficacy for research, and STEM career aspirations. Using mixed methods to identify and understand the within-program mechanisms that support student gains is a valuable new research approach for this field. Recognizing programmatic mechanisms across REU programs can lead to expansion, replication, and application of these models beyond one institution, resulting in more positive gains for more undergraduate STEM researchers

University admissions officers\u27 perceptions of student performance within the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program

This qualitative study sought to provide a general perception of admissions offices of secondary institutions have toward the Diploma Program through a grounded theory approach. The first goal of the study investigated the nature of credit awards for a student’s high school academic performance. Specific attention was paid to the processes institutions use for determining credit awards, policies associated with credit awards, and perceptions related credit awards. The second goal investigated admissions policies, processes, and perceptions associated with credit awards and the DP specifically. Finally, the third goal sought to illustrate the development and/or changes in the perceptions and actions admissions offices have in relation to the DP. Twenty institutions were randomly selected from US News & World Report’s Top 50 American Colleges. Institutions first completed a guiding question instrument that was followed by a telephone/email interview further investigating emerging understandings. Data gathered from these avenues were continually cross-compared and then triangulated with information found on each institution’s admissions websites, general catalogues, and other publicity type publications. Theoretical explanations for the phenomena of university perceptions and actions were generated through coded data, established categories, and memoing of relationships

Epistemic Strategies for Solving Two-Dimensional Physics Problems

An epistemic strategy is one in which a person takes a piece of knowledge and uses it to create new knowledge. Students in algebra and calculus based physics courses use epistemic strategies to solve physics problems. It is important to map how students use these epistemic strategies to solve physics problems in order to provide insight into the problem solving process. In this thesis three questions were addressed: (1) What epistemic strategies do students use when solving two-dimensional physics problems that require vector algebra? (2) Do vector preconceptions in kinematics and Newtonian mechanics hinder a student\u27s ability to apply the correct mathematical tools when solving a problem? and, (3) What patterns emerge with students of similar vector algebra skill in their problem solving abilities? Literature discussing epistemic games and frames was reviewed as well as literature discussing qualitative research, quantitative research, and think-aloud protocols. Students were given various problems in two-dimensional kinematics, statics and dynamics. They were asked to solve the problems using think-aloud protocol. After the student solved the problem he was asked to recall what he remembered about the solution process. This procedure gave more insight into the thought process of the student during the time he solved the problems. In addition to the interviews, a vector pre-assessment survey was administered to students at the beginning of the term. The vector pre-assessment survey provided data about the vector knowledge students brought into the physics course. Students scoring lower than fifty percent on the vector pre-assessment survey did not solve any problems correctly. These data and the results of a grounded theory study provided information about the problem solving strategies of the students interviewed in this study. Seven epistemic strategies were observed. These seven epistemic strategies fell into three frames: the qualitative sense making frame, the quantitative sense making frame, and the rote problem solving frame. The epistemic strategies identification of frames gave a detailed overview of how students solve physics problems involving vector algebra. Incomplete pieces of epistemic strategies, called strands, were also observed. Students would move between strategies without completing all the steps for a specific strategy. Strands were observed for most students. Advanced problem solvers or those students with more experience solving physics problems, moved from the qualitative sense making frame into the quantitative sense making frame to solve the problems. Students solving the problems correctly consistently moved into the quantitative sense making frame. However, if a student had access to an example that showed the exact solution, that student could end the problem with a correct solution in the rote problem solving frame. If no solutions or examples similar to the problem were available, the student was always unsuccessful solving the problem unless he/she moved into the quantitative sense making frame. Misconceptions about motion and forces were identified. Vector preconceptions were difficult to identify in this project, but difficulties with vector algebra were observed

Examining STEM faculty development to promote student belonging through inclusive teaching

This study explored the ways that STEM faculty learn about, design, and implement inclusive STEM teaching practices to improve student belonging. An interpretive phenomenological approach was employed to understand the personal experiences and thought processes of faculty as they worked to further develop their understanding of issues of equity and inclusion and transform their teaching conceptions and practices. STEM disciplines suffer from poor participation rates for women and students from historically marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds and could address long-standing problems of persistence, in part, by attending to issues of student belonging. Faculty represent a linchpin for fostering student academic belonging in STEM through the instructional decisions they make. Faculty development structures and approaches that led to shifts toward inclusive teaching conceptions and practices are discussed. Successfully scaling inclusive teaching practices across STEM departments and colleges will require investments in comprehensive, multi-faceted approaches to faculty development.Educational Leadership and Polic

Major Factors That Influence the Employment Decisions of Generation X Consulting Engineers

The purpose of this research was to study Generation X consulting engineers (those born between the years 1964 and 1980) in Lynchburg, Virginia, to determine the major factors that influence their employment decisions. Engineering consulting firms throughout the United States, particularly those in Lynchburg, have struggled to recruit young engineers in recent years. The recruiting of young engineers has been regarded by managers and executives as the single greatest challenge to the consulting profession. Despite the consensus within the profession that the problem existed, recommended solutions have been mostly speculative in nature and unsubstantiated by supportive data. This study focused on the perspective from Generation X engineers on recruiting and employment, and examined the key factors that led them to become consulting engineers in Lynchburg. This study\u27s contributions include development of a specific mixed method research approach to study recruiting of Generation X engineers, creation of knowledge that can be used as a foundation for future research, and the identification of factors that influence employment decisions of Generation X engineers that has practical use for improving recruiting techniques used by the consulting engineering profession

Creative Education and Creative Work

This research brings together the Creative Economy and Employability agendas, concerns of British government policy from the late 1990s to the current day. It interrogates the concept of employability in creative industries degrees from the viewpoint of contemporary students and graduates. It unpacks the meanings of employability and investigates employability’s place in the undergraduate experience from the undergraduate perspective. A grounded methodological approach is taken to ensure the research findings are rooted in the student voice. Participants in this research claim that generic university employability strategies are irrelevant to their creative practice. They want to learn how to develop meaningful communities of practice and gain access to the gatekeepers of creative work within the creative industry that they aspire to work. They want to be supported to access creative networks because without the necessary cultural, social and financial capital, these privileged circles remain closed, elitist and impenetrable. This research develops Creatour, a philosophy for creative work and life as a contemporary 21st century approach to creative employability. Creatour offers an alternative philosophy to the dominant models of skill acquisition to meet employers’ needs. It argues that ‘complexability’ describes what graduates should be developing for work in a global world. Creatour, adapted from the practice of Parkour, is a creative philosophy about finding your own path, overcoming obstacles, being resilient and living a ‘good life’. It supports participants to view employability in a holistic way both at university and after. Creatour is collaborative and co-produced with undergraduates, graduates and relevant others such as employers and practitioners. Creatour encourages students to regularly work in different ways, groups and spaces and to seek alternative actions or solutions that maybe more relevant, inclusive and commercial. Feedback from research dissemination shows Creatour as useful to other disciplines as a contemporary approach to learning and work