Engineering students' epistemological thinking in the context of senior design projects

Abstract

Senior Design Projects, as culminating, comprehensive design experiences for engineering undergraduates, were hypothesized to be associated with the steep growth in students' epistemological development during the last year of college. Nevertheless, few studies have specifically explored engineering students' epistemological thinking and the associated factors in the context of senior design. This work-in-progress adopted a mixed methods design, and explored engineering students' epistemological thinking in the context of senior design projects. A validated survey framed in Perry's theory was used to explore engineering students' epistemological development among the pre- and post- groups for engagement in senior design projects. Statistics showed a significant difference in their levels of epistemological development, particularly, their development of relativistic thinking. Also, twenty-one students from the survey respondents were interviewed in a one-on-one manner to explore the factors that were associated with students' epistemological development in a senior design projects context. Qualitative analyses indicated that the way in which senior design projects were organized and people factors such as mentors' roles and functions were closely related to students' epistemological development. Meanwhile, a close link between students' epistemological development level and their self-regulated learning skills was highlighted.