A longitudinal study of social and ethical responsibility among undergraduate engineering students: Comparing baseline and midpoint survey results

Abstract

In addition to developing technically competent engineers, engineering programs aim to prepare students to be professionally and ethically responsible. Universities have sought to integrate ethics instruction into their curricula through a variety of learning experiences. However, there is a lack of research on foundational understandings of social and ethical responsibility among engineering students, including how their perceptions change over time and following participation in specific types of learning experiences. This study uses a longitudinal mixed-methods study design, collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data from engineering students over the course of their four years as undergraduate students. This paper reports insights gained by a repeat survey of student perceptions of ethics and social responsibility. Our analysis compares student responses (n=319) to a survey administered during their first year of college and again in their junior year (approximately fifth-semester), including variations based on student affiliations and demographics (e.g., comparisons among universities, genders, importance of religion, and other relevant factors) and learning experiences (e.g., service-learning programs, ethics courses, extracurricular organizations, etc.). These mid-point findings contribute to our understandings of the trajectories of students' perceptions and perspectives and are beginning to reveal some specific experiences and contexts that are having the largest measurable impacts on the participating students.