Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

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buildings, electronics, and automobiles. Several assessments have been used to better
understand students’ perceptions of engineers and engineering. One such assessment is
the Draw an Engineer Test (DAET) (e.g., Capobianco, Diefes-Dux, Mena, & Weller, 2011;
Oware, Capobianco, & Diefes-Dux, 2007; Knight & Cunningham, 2004). This test, along
with the typical accompanying interview, provides interesting insights into students’
understanding of engineering, however, it is time-consuming and labourintensive to
administer and score. Additionally, the DAET allows for only one snapshot into students’
conceptions of engineering since students are instructed to draw just one pictorial
representation of an engineer. The field of pre-college engineering education research
needs to explore additional and different ways to assess students’ learning of engineering.
The theoretical framework that guided this study was the Contexts of Meaning framework
(Bloom, 1992). Additionally, the methodological framework used to frame this study was
an Action Research framework (O’Brien, 1998). Though not all aspects of Action Research
were employed, many were, including teacher as researcher, critical reflection, and an end
goal of promoting, improving, and sustaining engineering education and engineering
literacy for pre-college students.
The following research questions guided our study:
1. What engineering meaning, based on the Contexts of Meaning framework,
emerged from the students’ context maps after the engineering intervention?
2. How did the students’ expressed engineering meaning relate to the engineering
intervention objectives?
In addition, the following process question was utilized: How useful were context maps to
detect students' meaning associated with engineering?
Given existing shortcomings, it was important to implement an assessment strategy that
allowed for expression of varying facets of student knowledge. The context map
assessment allowed for investigation into the meaning students retained and created after
an engineering intervention. This is important to engineering education since across the
USA, and worldwide, engineering interventions at the pre-college level are becoming more
prevalent, and reliable assessment strategies that help demonstrate student knowledge
are critical to the refinement of said interventions.
Literature Review
Engineering at the elementary (primary) level is a relatively new concept in the United
States and in other cultural contexts (Clark & Andrews, 2010). Often, students are not
exposed to engineering curriculum until high school (secondary school) or even college or
university. With the recent interest in early exposure to engineering, researchers are
investigating student conceptions about engineers. Many researchers find that young
students hold the belief that engineers are mechanics, labourers, and technicians
(Capobianco et al., 2011; Cunningham & Knight, 2004). Engineering interventions are
needed to help dispel these misconceptions. However, with interventions, assessments are
necessary. The Draw an Engineer Test (DAET) is a popular tool used to assess students’
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011