Comparing Engineering Student and Practitioner Performance on the Strength of Materials Concept Inventory: Results and Implications
Publication: Journal of Civil Engineering Education
Volume 148, Issue 3
Abstract
Preparing engineering undergraduate students for the workforce is a goal of engineering programs. Engineering educators arguably provide students with conceptual understanding of engineering fundamentals; however, few studies focus on how knowledge of these concepts transitions into the engineering field. Concept inventories have been used in engineering disciplines as a form of student assessment of conceptual understanding. As measured by concept inventories, conceptual knowledge is presumed to be important for conceptual growth toward successful engineering practice. This study explores the performance of strength of materials conceptual understanding between engineering undergraduate students and practicing engineers. The strength of materials concept inventory was implemented, and data were collected from 153 engineering undergraduate students and 119 practicing civil engineers. The statistical analysis revealed inconsistency in performance across concepts and that structural engineers performed significantly better than nonstructural engineers and engineering undergraduates in 15 of the 23 questions. The difference in performance could be due to the way concepts are situated and applied across academic and workplace contexts.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of the study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. This includes anonymized data, SPSS analysis and results, excel tables, and excel graphs.
Acknowledgments
This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 1055356 and 1664250. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Published In
Journal of Civil Engineering Education
Volume 148 • Issue 3 • July 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 24, 2021
Accepted: Jan 5, 2022
Published online: Feb 22, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jul 22, 2022
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