Differences in Engineering Students’ Views of Social Responsibility between Disciplines
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141, Issue 4
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine differences in student views of social responsibility by discipline, looking at student reasons for their choice of discipline and online messaging as possible explanations for differences. Civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering students at five universities were surveyed regarding their views of social responsibility, which was measured using 50 questions on a 7-point Likert scale and open-ended response questions. Results showed that environmental engineering students had more positive social responsibility attitudes than civil engineering students, whose attitudes were more positive than mechanical engineering students. The greatest differences were among first-year students, suggesting that a priori perceptions of these disciplines differentiated more than curricular content. This hypothesis was supported by differences in the student motivations for choosing each major and online messaging between these disciplines with respect to elements of social responsibility. Lower social responsibility scores among environmental engineering students at higher ranks were troubling and require further study. This contrasted with stable or higher positive social responsibility scores among mechanical engineering students at higher ranks.
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Acknowledgments
This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant 1158863. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Additional funding was provided through an institutional fellowship for Excellence in STEM education. This research was possible because of the institutional support to distribute the survey and the students who took time to honestly complete the survey.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141 • Issue 4 • October 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 17, 2014
Accepted: Feb 17, 2015
Published online: Mar 23, 2015
Discussion open until: Aug 23, 2015
Published in print: Oct 1, 2015
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